Originally Posted by
EHAM1
Interesting article in the Dutch Financial Times today..
The prestigious W Hotel in the center of Amsterdam is facing a court-ordered eviction because the operator has not paid rent for three years. In the meantime, the rent arrears, excluding interest and penalties, have risen to €23.4 million.
German real estate investor Deka has requested an eviction order in summary proceedings. According to Deka, the demand is urgent because the monthly rent of €1 million causes the "enormous payment arrears" to escalate quickly. A ruling from the Amsterdam judge is expected on Tuesday.
Rooftop pool The operator of the luxury hotel with a swimming pool on the roof is Palace Hotel, part of the Amsterdam hotel group Sircle Collection. The operator's lawyer confirmed the rent arrears and offered no substantive defense against the impending eviction.
Sircle Collection did not respond to requests for comment on the payment problems that already arose in March 2023. Deka speaks of "unsustainable" arrears. According to the Germans, there is no longer any prospect of payments.
The founder and owner of hotel group Sircle Collection is Israeli Liran Wizman (49), who has been active in the Amsterdam hospitality industry for twenty years. He is also co-owner of The Entourage Group, which is responsible for the restaurants and bars in various hotels.
W Hotels is a hotel brand owned by Marriott International. According to the lawyers on both sides, all parties hope for a transfer of responsibilities to a new operator. In that case, a painful eviction with a bailiff, with inevitable consequences for hotel guests, could be avoided.
The building, located behind the Royal Palace on Dam Square, originally served as the National Office Building for Money and Telephone Services. The five-story building has been owned by the German real estate investment company Deka since 2017.
Sale-and-leaseback arrangement Deka acquired the building from the Sircle group at the time in a so-called sale-and-leaseback arrangement. It paid €260 million for it. The group agreed to pay €10 million in annual rent.
Deka is one of the largest real estate investment companies in Europe. According to its lawyer Charles van Rijckevorsel of NewGroundLaw, the hotel group is doing "everything" to avoid making payments. According to him, there is no question of a temporary payment backlog, but of a "structural lack of willingness to pay."
Deka also has conflicts with other hotel brands from the Sircle group regarding payment arrears. For example, there are substantial rent arrears at the Sir Albert Hotel near the Albert Cuyp market in Amsterdam and the Park Centraal hotel in The Hague. Furthermore, Deka says it is owed money due to the termination of the partnership in the Sir Savigny Hotel in Berlin.
On its website, Sircle states that it operates twenty hotels in Europe, 26 restaurants and bars, several private member clubs at hotels, and various real estate projects. In the latest annual report for 2024, the company writes that recovery from the pandemic will still require time and effort. How the hotel group is doing financially exactly is unclear to Deka. The top holding company is located in Cyprus.
"Agreements violated" In 2020, the German real estate investor and Sircle also faced each other in court. The operator then received a rent reduction due to the corona pandemic. Sircle still has arrears from that time. Deka says it has repeatedly met the hotel group "benevolently." But according to the Germans, the group has repeatedly failed to comply with the agreements or has only partially complied with them.