News
RIU to manage its first hotel in Barcelona from April 2027
Hotel Sofía will be taken over by RIU Hotels & Resorts, which will begin managing it on 1 April 2027. The deal marks the entry of the Mallorcan chain into Barcelona with a hotel offering 465 rooms.
The establishment has 465 rooms and will be the 14th RIU Plaza
With 465 rooms spread over 19 floors and one of the largest event and meeting centres in Barcelona, Hotel Sofía is hardly a low-key addition to the city’s hotel scene.
RIU Hotels & Resorts has bought the establishment from its previous owners, the funds Blasson Property Investments and BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts. Management will begin on 1 April 2027: it will be the chain’s first hotel in the Catalan capital and the 14th in its urban RIU Plaza line.
A large-scale deal with no public price
The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed. The Mallorca-based company described it as one of the most important deals of the year in Spain. The transaction was brokered by aCapital for the buyer and Eastdil and Colliers for the seller.
RIU Plaza already has hotels in London and New York. It is also present in Chicago. In Barcelona, the chain had been looking for more than a decade for the right opportunity, according to its CEO, Luis Riu.
Barcelona had already been on RIU’s radar
In 2014, the company considered buying the building that had been Banesto’s Catalan headquarters, at number 1 Passeig de Gràcia, next to Plaça de Catalunya. The deal did not go through and Pontegadea, the investment fund of Inditex founder Amancio Ortega, acquired the property for 44 million euros.
In the summer of 2024, Luis Riu said that the chain had also negotiated for a time to acquire the W hotel, owned by a Qatari investment fund. The company was looking for a large, iconic establishment, similar to the Madrid hotel, but the owners of the W did not want to sell.
The Sofía joins the urban strategy
RIU Hotels & Resorts’ strategy is based on direct investment in properties to maintain control over the management of its establishments. Hotel Sofía will become part of this approach in Barcelona when RIU takes over management in 2027.
In other news about the city, Barcelona approved grants of up to 60,000 euros for market traders’ associations, as reported in the information about the markets.