Dublin’s Prem Group goes Dutch with flagship aparthotel
THE Dublin-based international hospitality and hotel management firm Prem Group is to open a new flagship aparthotel in Amsterdam.
The Premier Suites Plus Amsterdam will be a luxury offering located in the business area of Zuidas and is the company’s highest-spec premises to date.
Prem Group has taken a long-term lease in the Hourglass Building, which is currently under construction and is expected to become a landmark building in the district due to its distinctive design. Prem Group is investing €2.5m in the fit-out.
CEO Jim Murphy said this property is taking the group’s accommodation “to another level”.
Prem Group is leasing the space from real estate institutional investor Bouwinvest.
“It proves our covenant strength. Pension funds are big on covenants and the ability to pay the rent. So we worked hard on strengthening our balance sheet and we’ve been able to satisfy this institutional investor now,” said Murphy.
Premier Suites Plus Amsterdam will include 88 luxury one-bedroom units, 26 two-bedroom apartments and one three-bedroom apartment aimed at medium to long-stay business travellers.
Prem Group has been operating in Belgium since 2006 and has a management team based in Ghent. Murphy said the company had opened its first property in the Netherlands in 2017 in Rotterdam, also a Premier Suites property.
“We find the Netherlands is a really open, very entrepreneurial, pro-business country,” he said. “We like doing business there.” Prem Group entered into a public tender process to win a lease for the Hourglass Building, which will also house a leading law firm, Loyens & Loeff.
“The building is in the shape of an hourglass which is creating plenty of fun for our designers because we’re in the middle and the building is coming in and going out again. Every room has a slight slant to it,” said Murphy.
The company has signed for a 100-room property in Antwerp, which is under construction at present and will open in 2021. It is close to doing a deal for a hotel in Brussels. The group is also looking at opportunities in Austria and Germany.