Ruby Secures Second Project In Italy
In the heart of the Italian capital Rome, The Ruby Group will realise a hotel with approximately 165 rooms together with ECE Work & Live as project developer and investor.
Ruby Hotels, led by founder and CEO Michael Struck, continues to successfully drive its expansion in Southern Europe. Following its opening in Florence next year, the Munich hotel group will launch its first Lean Luxury hotel in Rome. The new hotel will be built in a former office building with a historical façade, directly in the heart of Rome near the Spanish Steps. It will have approximately 165 rooms and a 24/7 bar with café and a rooftop terrace overlooking Rome’s city centre.
The new Ruby Hotel is located on Via Agostino Depretis, within walking distance of the Roman Forum, Piazza Navona and the Colosseum. The Repubblica metro station and Termini central station are also close by. The journey takes 40 minutes to Fiumicino airport and 42 minutes to Ciampino airport.
“Within Rome’s market, which is demonstrating stable growth, affordable luxury is an over proportionately growing, albeit underserved, niche segment. With our Lean Luxury concept, we aim to address this specific demand. This project fits perfectly, and we are particularly happy to be developing it jointly with our long-time partner ECE,” says Catherine Hilt, Group Senior Manager Development at Ruby.
“Our first hotel project in Italy combines the key objectives of our strategy in the hotel segment, to expand our international activities and extend them to attractive markets such as Italy, to invest more in the conversion of existing properties, and to focus primarily on hotels with a leisure and business focus,” says Torsten Kuttig, Director Hotel Development at ECE Work & Live. “We are therefore very pleased to have identified a suitable existing property in the heart of Rome, which we can convert into a modern hotel building together with Ruby Hotels as our partner.” The conversion of the former office building is being carried out under the management of ECE Work & Live as project developer and investor, and the interior design by Ruby’s own design team, led by Matthew Balon. The landlord is ECE Group, a long-standing partner of Ruby. Osborne Clarke provided legal support to the Ruby Group.
The new Ruby Hotel is scheduled to open in 2025.
About Ruby Hotels
The Munich-based Ruby Group under the leadership of founder and CEO Michael Struck is breaking new ground with its Lean Luxury philosophy. With a lean organisational structure and concentration on the essentials, Ruby succeeds in creating a contemporary, affordable form of luxury for modern, cost and style-conscious customers. Founded in 2013, the Group already operates 15 Ruby hotels, with a further 21 hotels under construction or in the planning phase. Ruby is expanding into Asia with the joint venture Ruby Asia, founded in 2018. Ruby also offers Ruby Workspaces in Munich, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Amsterdam, and Vienna – perfectly equipped workplaces and a creative atmosphere with access to an inspiring office community. Financially strong partners support Ruby’s expansion. ECE Group; the Austrian Soravia Group; Franger Investment, a German family office; Ocean Link, a private equity fund; the entrepreneur Michael Hehn; and Michael Struck jointly hold the company shares.