The ECE European Lodging Recovery Fund, a new hotel real estate fund which is about to be launched by ECE Real Estate Partners, has acquired its first seed asset with the acquisition of the Bonvecchiati building ensemble in the heart of Venice.
The €100 mln+ investment was made together with two experienced real estate developers as joint venture partners in this transaction, Soravia and Denkmalneu.
The Bonvecchiati building ensemble is located on Calle Goldoni just 150m from the famous Piazza San Marco in the middle of San Marco. Besides the Palace Bonvecchiati, the complex consists of the Hotel Bonvecchiati and the Residenzia Bonvecchiati as well as additional retail areas. Located on its own canal with a large restaurant terrace and bridge, it provides a total of 191 rooms, a restaurant, bar, spa and two moorings.
The investment is exemplary of the fund's strategy to invest in excellent locations with a value-add approach, ECE said. The large property with more than 10,000 m2 was acquired directly from the owning families, who had previously also run the business. As part of the investment, ECE and its partners plan to extensively renovate and redevelop the complex.
The fund is pursuing a repositioning in which the extensively renovated hotels will be operationally merged and placed in the hands of an international brand for the first time.
The Luxembourg-based ECE European Lodging Recovery Fund is targeted at institutional investors such as insurance companies, sovereign-wealth funds, and pension funds. It intends to invest €300 mln of equity into select hotel assets with value-add opportunities. The already existing investors are the Family Office of the Otto family and the fund management team.
