SEB AM to convert Milan building into B&B hotel

SEB Asset Management has obtained planning permission to redevelop the 13-storey Torre Quadra building in Sesto San Giovanni, a suburb in the northeast of Milan.

The real estate asset manager is planning to revitalise the 1992 office property and convert it into a hotel for the future new tenant, the B&B hotel chain, which has signed a 20-year lease on the asset.

The opening of the B&B Hotel, which is part of open-ended real estate fund SEB ImmoInvest’s portfolio, is planned for spring 2014.

The 54-metre high hotel will offer over 190 rooms on around 5,000 m2 of space, plus 50 underground parking spaces.

B&B Hotel, the third-largest budget hotel group in France, has over 270 hotels in France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Portugal and the Czech Republic.

'The conversion project and the new long-term lease have allowed us to successfully reposition the property in what has been a difficult office market environment in recent years,' said Axel Kraus, the SEB Asset Management managing director responsible for real estate asset management.