ECE hotel fund signs 20-year lease with Palladium Hotel Group for €140m Bonvecchiati Hotel in Venice

  • The Only YOU Bonvecchiati Hotel with 168 rooms will open in spring 2025
  • Repositioning as Venice’s leading 5* lifestyle hotel
  • ECE’s hotel fund’s seed asset exemplifies the value-add strategy

ECE Real Estate Partners and The Palladium Hotel Group have signed a 20-year contract for the operation of the Bonvecchiati Hotel in Venice by its boutique lifestyle brand Only YOU Hotels. The hotel ensemble has recently been acquired by the ECE European Lodging Recovery Fund in a joint venture with hotel developers Soravia and denkmalneu and is being comprehensively refurbished and repositioned. This marks the completion of the planning phase for the repositioning of the ensemble, which is located in the heart of Venice.

The renovation will result in connecting the Hotel Bonvecchiati and Palace Bonvecchiati Hotel through an innovative design that establishes a central lobby and enhances the revitalized central courtyard, which will become the exclusive entrance to the future 5-star hotel. With 168 rooms it will be the largest high-end lifestyle hotel in San Marco, only a short walk from all major attractions such as St Mark's Square, the Rialto Bridge and the La Fenice opera house. The hotel will feature a spacious terrace overlooking the canal as well as a private jetty. Guests can enjoy the buzz of the popular Calle Goldoni and Calle dei Fabbri, linger in the two restaurants, enjoy several bars, the "Breakery" café and the inviting lounge, or relax in the idyllic courtyard. The hotel is to be completed by 2025.

The exceptional combination of a first-class location, an innovative architectural concept and a floor area of approx. 10,000m2 caught the interest of many hotel operators during the international search conducted. Amongst these, Palladium Hotel Group, with its boutique lifestyle brand Only YOU Hotels, was the most suitable combination for the joint venture partners to make the most of this outstanding hotel project. The combination of a high-end lifestyle concept and curated gastronomic proposals, that Only YOU Hotels represents, aligned with the groups international expertise and strong financial standing, that Palladium Hotel Group presented, lead to the signing of the 20-year lease. 

Ascan Kókai, Principal at ECE Real Estate Partners, highlights: "The institutional lease agreement now signed matches perfectly the value-add strategy of ECE’s hotel fund. It is a hybrid lease with an indexed and guaranteed minimum rent and a variable turnover rent. Fund investors benefit from both inflation protection and upside potential with a capex of €40 million."

Palladium Hotel Group has over 50 years of experience and operates 40 hotels and over 13,000 rooms, distributed amongst six countries: Spain, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Italy and Brazil, and manages nine brands. The hotel group treasures a solid expertise both in holiday and urban destinations. Palladium Hotel Group is therefore ideally positioned to establish the high-end lifestyle hotel segment in the city of Venice, one of the most desired destinations by travelers around the world. So far, there is no comparable product on this scale on the Venetian market. San Marco is dominated by luxurious, traditional grand hotels on the one hand and medium-sized tourist hotels on the other, allowing Only YOU Bonvecchiati Venice to usher in a new era of the hotel industry in Venice. 

The interior design is created by Lázaro Rosa Violán (Barcelona). The owner was advised by DLA Piper (Milan) in the lease negotiations and Andersen (Venice) on corporate and tax matters. Christie & Co (Vienna) managed the operator search. MRP Hotels (Vienna) render interims management services.

Your contact person 

Lukas Nemela

Tel.: 040 60606 6898

presse(at)ece.com