Billionaire property magnates the Reuben brothers have used around €100m acquiring a single of Venice’s oldest hotels, a vote of self confidence in a luxurious vacation industry upended by the pandemic.
The 90,000 sq. foot Baglioni Hotel Luna, which dates back to the 12th century, is the most up-to-date in a string of resort and retail investments designed by David and Simon Reuben due to the fact the start of the coronavirus disaster.
They invested around $3.8bn across the US and Europe final 12 months, snapping up belongings these as the Surrey Lodge on New York’s Higher East Side and the Corinthia Resort in Rome.
“We are passionate about high excellent inns and want to assistance in which we can,” Simon Reuben, the more youthful of the two, instructed the Fiscal Periods.
The brothers possess a wide portfolio of property via their eponymous keeping company. The acquisition of the Baglioni Resort Luna is their 2nd expenditure in the Venetian resort industry right after they acquired the boutique Il Palazzo Experimental in 2017.
Refurbishment operates on the house have now started with the intention of opening the lodge to guests this summer time.
But vacationer hubs such as Venice have been rendered shadows of their pre-disaster selves as lockdowns and global border closures have held site visitors away. Luxurious accommodations in metropolitan locations have been particularly tough strike specified their reliance on wealthy global travellers.
Analysts and executives across the travel sector expect finances and leisure travel to be the very first to rebound.
Even right after reopening very last June, adhering to the 1st wave of the pandemic, many Venetian accommodations claimed occupancy costs as reduced as 15 for every cent irrespective of it becoming peak period.
Pre-Covid Venice welcomed about 12m visitors every single calendar year, according to figures from the Italian Bureau of Statistics. However, arrivals in the metropolis in 2020 were being 71 for each cent down below 2019’s amounts, in accordance to an estimate from study organization Statista.
Mr Reubens explained he thought “the world will inevitably return to a new normality and historic town centres will generally entice new people and visitors”.
Along with investments in substantial end accommodations in Miami, Las Vegas and Ibiza around the previous yr, the brothers have also procured retail property on Rodeo Generate, Los Angeles, and ended up portion of a joint enterprise in the senior debt secured in opposition to the 28-web page personal members’ club Soho Home.
They have been most lately part of a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund hunting to get Newcastle United football club, their very first foray into activity beyond horse and greyhound racing. The £300m takeover fell aside in the summer amid recriminations involving the Premier League and the club’s owner, Mike Ashley.
About the Author
