Spain’s Riu Group Acquires Gresham for €92m
Spain’s Riu Group has completed the purchase of the historic Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street for €92m.
The Gresham hotel has 323 rooms and suites, 20 function rooms, a restaurant and a bar, and is situated at the heart of Dublin. It was previously owned by Precinct Investments, which in 2004 took the then stock-market listed hotel into private ownership in a €117m deal. Through the economic crash, the hotel came under the control of NAMA, which put the property up for sale earlier this year.
Riu Group beat competition from US private equity companies Apollo and Cerberus to purchase the hotel.
“Dublin is now one of the most interesting cities for investment,” said Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels & Resorts. “Its tourism industry is booming, demand for rooms rising and the city is putting a lot of money into its infrastructure. We are extremely pleased with the purchase of this hotel in one of the most beautiful European capitals.”
The Riu Group is 49% owned by travel giant TUI, and is TUI’s biggest hotel brand, operating more than 100 resorts and hotels globally. The company is expecting revenue this year of over €2bn and employs 27,000 people across the world.
This Irish addition to the collection of Riu Plaza urban hotels will extend Riu’s list of international destinations. The hotel is set to become Riu’s second city hotel in Europe, after the Riu Plaza Berlin opened in September 2015, and the brand’s sixth in all.
