Fattal pledges £90m to update Dilly

The former Le Méridien hotel on Piccadilly, W1, will undergo a £90m makeover after being bought by Israel’s Fattal Group. Rebranded the Dilly in May last year, the 280-bedroom hotel was bought by Fattal for an estimated £80m-£100m from Archer Hotel Capital. The hotel, which was built in 1908 between Regent Street and Piccadilly, features an indoor swing pool, spa and squash courts, and was once a favourite haunt of George V. Jason Carruthers, managing director at Leonardo Hotels UK & Ireland, said: “We are very pleased to be adding another high-performing hotel and yet another iconic hotel brand with a long rich history to the Leonardo portfolio. It’s a great hotel, with an experienced management team and dedicated employees, and fits very well into our broader portfolio and our strategy to position Leonardo Hotels as one of Europe’s most significant owner and manager of well invested, and strategically positioned hotels.” The deal is part of a recently announced €400m (£346m) fund, which Fattal raised in partnership with a number of institutional investors. Bank Hapoalim supported the transaction. As well as its four-star Leonardo brand, which operates 52 hotels in the UK and Ireland, Fattal owns a luxury offshoot, dubbed Leonardo Royal, with sites at London City, Tower Bridge and St Paul’s and the NYX Hotel London Holborn. Fattal Group owns and operates more than 200 hotels in 100 destinations. It recently paid $165m (£147m) for six hotels in Spain, with a further deal for nine hotels in Austria. Fattal also controls the Jurys Inn brand but announced in April that it will rebrand the 35 Jurys properties under the Leonardo flag by the end of this year. It is also developing NYX hotels in Dublin and Edinburgh at a cost of €41m and £26m respectively. Baker Mckenzie, Colliers, Eastdil, KPMG and Arcadis advised on the deal.   To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews Photo from Leonardo Hotels