Cycas Hospitality has secured a management agreement to open its second hotel in Germany’s Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. The contract to open and rebrand a 327-room hotel in Darmstadt - the country’s first Digital City - was signed with a subsidiary of Warimpex Finanz und Beteiligungs AG. Opened in September 2019 as The Hotel Darmstadt, the independent property will be transformed through a year-long refurbishment programme and relaunched under Accor’s new greet brand in autumn 2020. The hotel group’s new economy, the community-based brand was launched in September 2019 to breathe new life into the economy hotel landscape, and the Darmstadt property is the first greet hotel planned for Germany.
The property occupies a significant footprint in the heart of the Telekom district, the business centre of Darmstadt, just 15 minutes from Frankfurt Airport. Officially known as the “City of Science” (Wissenschaftsstadt), Darmstadt is home to major research and technological institutions, with the European Space Agency’s Operations Centre (ESA-ESOC), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and the headquarters of Merck, the world’s oldest pharmaceutical company, all within walking distance of the new hotel.
To capitalise on its central location and proximity to leading technology organisations, the converted former telecoms training centre will also incorporate flexible co-working space later this year. The site also offers over 2,000m² of conference and events space, including 26 meeting and seminar rooms spread across two of the hotel’s five floors, plus a large lecture hall for up to 170 people, and onsite parking for 220 cars. The hotel complex also incorporates 5,000m² of private garden space, ideal for outdoor activities and teambuilding.
Matt Luscombe, Chief Executive Officer at Cycas Hospitality, said: “From its proximity to Frankfurt Airport and strong national and regional rail links to its reputation as one of Europe’s leading technology hubs, Darmstadt is well connected in every sense. Warimpex is amongst Europe’s foremost property development companies and well established in the central European markets. We are therefore delighted to have signed our first project together and looking forward to using our expertise to help bring their vision for a multi-functional ‘working hotel’ to life.”
Christoph Salzer, Senior Vice President at Warimpex, added: “We believe that the building’s distinctive concept and the independent nature of the greet eco-lifestyle brand will make our new hotel particularly well-suited to the city’s innovative spirit, and the requirements of modern meeting spaces. With Cycas’s track record for managing high-performing hotels, we look forward to delivering an authentic, friendly and excellent value option for the high volume of business travellers meeting in the city and embarking on what we hope will prove the first of more ventures together across Europe.”
