Union Hanover puts London hotels for sale

Union Hanover and EquityBridge Asset Management have appointed Colliers International and JLL to forward sell a pair of London Adagio aparthotel properties for more than £110 mln (€140 mln).

Adagio, a joint venture of French hotel specialists Accor and Pierre & Vacances, will open the £70 mln, 217 apartment property on Whitechapel Road, London in 2016 following the conversion of a major office building, Black Lion House.

The £40 mln, 137 apartment Adagio London Stratford will open on Celebration Avenue in East London’s Stratford district in 2018.

'We have already had a number of off-market approaches by investors for the properties so we decided to capitalise on investor appetite,' commented Union Hanover managing director Eric Jafari. 'These transactions add weight to our balance sheet which we will use to improve our financing packages and profitability on the existing development pipeline of our own aparthotel brand, Urban Villa.'

Union Hanover will remain the development manager on both projects.

The two properties are Adagio’s first aparthotels in London. Adagio’s aparthotel concept has been rolled out across Europe and is now being developed across the UK, following the UK launch of Adagio in Liverpool last year and the planned development in Edinburgh, announced last month, and Birmingham, due to launch in 2015.