It goes on.
The fear that the "Grandhotel Hessischer Hof" and the famous "Jimmy's Bar" would remain closed forever did not come true.
In September 2020, the news that the effects of the pandemic necessitated the closure of the institution made headlines across Germany.
Now the news of the sale and the planned reopening will cause no less of a stir.
Because the Dalai Lama was a guest here, as was the Belgian royal couple;
For 68 years, no Frankfurt trade fair was imaginable without the opportunity to stay overnight and have a nightcap in "Jimmy's Bar".
This is how it should be again: Peakside Capital Advisors AG has acquired the grand hotel and an adjoining office property from the Prinz von Hessen group of companies.
Carsten Knop
Editor.
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"We are very happy that the 'Grandhotel Hessischer Hof' will remain as a hotel and that we have found a suitable buyer in Peakside, whose ideas and plans convinced us from the start," Donatus Landgraf von Hessen is quoted as saying in a statement. which is available to the FAZ.
He is also happy that "the wonderful success story of the house" is now to be continued.
At the time of the closure, it was said that Frankfurt is currently and in the future a difficult environment for hotels.
Apparently, the situation has improved, even if the negotiations were reportedly not easy.
Until the start of the Corona crisis, the hotel had held its own on the market, in sight of group giants such as the Marriott, the Maritim at the exhibition center and in the immediate vicinity of Spanish inexpensive competitors.
The only privately run luxury hotel in the city was in this somewhat different address.
"An institution of the Frankfurt luxury hotel industry"
The house on the Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage was built in 1952 on the site of the city palace of Wolfgang Prince of Hesse.
In the years before the closure, the property was renovated at great expense.
It has 121 rooms and suites, a 180 square meter presidential suite, eleven function rooms, a restaurant, bar, four terraces, a winter garden, a spa and fitness area with a view over the Frankfurt rooftops and 80 parking spaces for cars.
The adjoining office property has 560 square meters and is let to two tenants.
After they move out, it will be renovated and re-let.
“The Grandhotel Hessischer Hof was an institution in Frankfurt’s luxury hotel industry – and the hotel is set to become one again.
We are planning a refurbishment and repositioning with a new operator," Boris Schran, Managing Partner of Peakside, is quoted as saying in the announcement.
One is already in the first talks with possible operators and has received "positive feedback" on the plans.
In addition, the revival of "Jimmy's Bar", a legend of Frankfurt's nightlife, is planned "soon".
Because long before the Frankfurt bar boom, "Jimmy's" was the place where people met at night who didn't want to sleep: Roman politicians after city council meetings, cooks after work, idlers, socialites, right in the middle of it all the legendary bar manager Andrès Amador .
He did a lot of business with him, and at book fair times a publisher is said to have spontaneously done a somersault in front of the counter.
Peakside is a European investment management company and says it manages real estate assets of more than EUR 1.4 billion for institutional investors and has so far acquired properties worth more than EUR 4.1 billion for its investors.
The umbrella brand "Prinz von Hessen" in turn includes all tourism and gastronomic sub-brands of the Hessian House Foundation and the Cultural Foundation of the House of Hessen.
The flagship is the Schlosshotel Kronberg im Taunus.
The portfolio also includes the Prinz von Hessen winery in the Rheingau and Gut Panker with the hotel and restaurant Ole Liese, a traditional Trakehner stud and farm in Schleswig-Holstein.
The House Foundation and the Cultural Foundation, to which the Schlossmuseum Fasanerie belongs, maintain the legacy of the House of Hesse.
The chairman of both foundations is Donatus Landgrave von Hessen.