RIU Hotels & Resorts acquires Grand Hyatt Barcelona in €300M deal

The sellers were BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts and Spanish real estate investment firm Blasson Property Investments, which acquired the property in 2023 for €180 million. The previous owners invested approximately €20 million in upgrading the hotel and repositioning it within the luxury hospitality market. The property joined the Grand Hyatt brand in April 2024.

A 465-Room Hotel with a Strong Presence in the MICE Market

The five-star hotel is located on Joan XXIII Avenue, in the Les Corts-Pedralbes district, close to Avinguda Diagonal, Camp Nou and CaixaBank’s headquarters. It opened in 1975 under the name Princesa Sofía.

Since 2021, the property has changed ownership three times. It initially came under the control of Brookfield following its acquisition of Selenta’s hotel portfolio. It was subsequently acquired by a consortium comprising Blasson and AXA IM Alts, which later became part of BNP Paribas Asset Management.

The hotel features 465 rooms, including 49 suites and one penthouse, distributed across 19 floors. Its facilities include five dining venues, a spa, a fitness centre, an outdoor swimming pool and conference facilities covering a total area of 3,700 sq. m.

The largest conference room can accommodate up to 870 people, making the property a significant asset in Barcelona’s meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) market.

The hotel also holds LEED Gold environmental certification.

BNP Paribas’ Strategic Divestment

BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts and Blasson Property Investments acquired the property in 2023, pursuing a strategy focused on upgrading and repositioning the hotel within the market.

The investment focused on improving the hotel’s facilities, services and environmental performance, with the aim of strengthening its competitiveness in the luxury hospitality and business events markets.

According to the management company’s announcement, the hotel maintained resilient operating revenues throughout the ownership period, benefiting from the recovery of Barcelona’s tourism market and demand from both business and leisure travellers.

The sale concludes a three-year investment cycle during which the property’s refurbishment and repositioning were accompanied by an increase in its market value.

RIU Enters the Barcelona Market After Twelve Years of Seeking an Investment Opportunity

For RIU Hotels & Resorts, the acquisition marks the group’s first presence in Barcelona, a market in which the Spanish hotel group had been seeking an investment opportunity for more than a decade.

The company is scheduled to take over the hotel’s management on 1 April 2027, incorporating it into its RIU Plaza portfolio of urban hotels.

Following this addition, the RIU Plaza portfolio will comprise 14 hotels, with a presence in cities including Madrid, London, New York and Chicago.

RIU’s Chief Executive Officer, Luis Riu, described the acquisition as the fulfilment of a long-standing strategic objective, noting that Barcelona had been a priority for the group since 2010, when it began developing the RIU Plaza brand.

The acquisition comes at a time when limited opportunities to develop new hotels in Barcelona are increasing investor interest in existing hospitality assets.

Urban planning restrictions introduced in the city in 2015 have constrained the development of new hotel establishments, further enhancing the strategic importance of existing operational properties.