Together with its joint venture partner DERECO, a multi-family office from Cologne, the Hamburg-based investor and project developer REVITALIS REAL ESTATE AG sold the Hampton by Hilton hotel located right next to Sparkassen-Arena in Kiel to GBI AG by way of a forward deal. GBI acquired the property-to-be for a hotel fund operated by Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK, a pension fund) and Universal Investment.

This premium economy facility to be branded HAMPTON BY HILTON is being built on a plot covering approx. 2,700 sqm. Completion is scheduled by the end of 2020. According to plans drafted by the MPP MEDING PLAN + PROJEKT GmbH architectural firm, the hotel will boast 208 rooms on some 8,000 sqm of gross floor space. The new hotel will be operated by GS Star GmbH, a subsidiary of Gorgeous Smiling Hotels GmbH.

“The hotel is perfectly located opposite the Sparkassen-Arena stadium, which will automatically ensure some basic capacity utilisation. What’s more is that we expect the HILTON brand to attract an international clientele to the city,” says Simon Behr, Director of Fund Management & Transaction at GBI AG. “The Hampton by Hilton in Kiel is an ideal supplement to the hotel fund we started last year, which focuses on A locations and B and C spots in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.”

Says Andreas Lipp, Management Board member of REVITALIS REAL ESTATE AG: “REVITALIS has been familiar with hotels as an asset class for many years. As we are well connected, we can offer our investors attractive hotel locations plus well-known hotel brands and hotel operators. Now that we’ve successfully closed the transaction with GBI AG and BVK – one of the most relevant institutional investors in Germany – we’re considering it a proven fact that the Hampton by Hilton in Kiel is a hotel development that suits the client and is in line with market needs.”