WHY IT RATES: RIU Hotels & Resorts is continuing to expand its RIU Plaza brand with the acquisition of Barcelona’s Hotel Princesa Sofia – its first property purchase in the city – which will become the 14th hotel in the company’s urban product line. RIU will begin managing the 465-room hotel on April 1, 2027. — Claudette Covey, Executive Retail Editor
RIU Hotels & Resorts has confirmed the purchase of Barcelona’s historic Hotel Princesa Sofía from its current owners, Blasson Property Investments and BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts.
The property enjoys a strategic location on Avinguda Joan XXIII, just one block from Avinguda Diagonal, next to Camp Nou and CaixaBank’s landmark headquarters, and opposite the Jardins de les Infantes and several University of Barcelona campuses, in the most exclusive part of the Les Corts–Pedralbes district.
The hotel, which features 465 rooms across 19 floors and one of the city’s largest event and meeting facilities, will be managed by RIU from April 1, 2027, becoming the 14th hotel in its urban RIU Plaza line, which already has a presence in major global cities such as London, New York and Chicago.
“With this hotel, we are achieving a historic milestone, having spent more than a decade searching for the right opportunity to invest in Barcelona. The city has been a strategic priority for us ever since we launched our Riu Plaza line in 2010. We are approaching this project with the same enthusiasm and professional dedication that we brought to the Hotel Riu Plaza in Madrid, which is now our best-known property in the country,” said Luis Riu, CEO of RIU.
The property transaction was brokered aCapital on the buyer’s side and Eastdil and Colliers on the seller’s side.
SOURCE: RIU HOTELS & RESORTS press release.
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