Ruby Hotels opens in Cologne
- Munich
- 27 January 2018
Proximus develops Ruby Hotel at Hohenzollernring in Cologne
Individual lifestyle boutique hotel is built according to plans by ingenhoven architects
Cologne-based PROXIMUS REAL ESTATE AG is realizing a boutique hotel of Munich’s RUBY group between Hohenzollernring 79-87 and the Belgian quarter, on the famous CAPITOL grounds.
Since its opening in 1929 and its reconstruction in 1954, the CAPITOL was the most important movie theater in Cologne. In the end of the 90ies the building gained national popularity as production site of German TV shows such as ‘Die Harald Schmidt Show’ and ‘TV Total.’
The existing buildings at Hohenzollernring 79-87 with office spaces of ca. 7,000 sqm will be comprehensively refurbished and expanded by ca. 1,800 sqm of retail spaces.
The new hotel building with 186 rooms and underground parking is set to open in 2020. It is set on a plot of ca. 4,000 sqm in the courtyard of the CAPITOL area.
The PROXIMUS REAL ESTATE AG purchased the area at Hohenzollernring 79-87 in 2011. The core of the redevelopment is the new building located in the courtyard as well as the redesign of the facade facing the ‘Ring,‘ which will be realized by the globally renowned architecture office ‘ingenhoven architects’ from Dusseldorf.
“It was our goal to create an attractive and sustainable ensemble with diversified asset classes in Cologne‘s prominent inner city location between the Belgian quarter and the GERLING quarter’, explains Michael Kunz, founder and board member of PROXIMUS REAL ESTATE AG.
The seven-story new hotel building facing the courtyard is characterized by numerous planted terraces and floor-to-ceiling windows. The facade facing Hohenzollernring offers passers-by an elegant view through to the green courtyard where the hotel, offices and shops are located. “Our central idea was the vision of a stepped pyramid serving as a green lung within the new hotel,“ outlines Christoph Ingenhoven, architect and founder of ingenhoven architects. The new courtyard offers shade, regulates the humidity through numerous plants and binds dust particles. It provides noise and soundabsorption shielding the surrounding neighborhoods.
The hotel’s public spaces and rooms follow RUBY‘s LEAN LUXURY philosophy: Top location, high-quality fittings, and genuine design. All of this is offered at an affordable price by rigorously cutting out the superfluous and focusing on the essential. “This works because we accommodate luxury in a relatively condensed space, similar to luxury yachts, and we forego unnecessary services. Thanks to proprietary technical innovations, we plan, build and organize ourselves differently from conventional hotels. To be precise, we plan and build in a very modular way and centralize as well as automatize processes behind the scenes wherever possible. This helps us create a luxurious and unique hotel experience at an affordable price,“ Michael Struck, RUBY founder and CEO explains the group’s approach. Every hotel is designed and developed individually, referencing local themes and stories.
Cologne’s film- and TV-scene in general and the CAPITOL building’s history in particular will shape the hotel’s interior, with hand-selected vintage furniture as well as memorabilia of the city’s post-war film- and TV history.
The new RUBY HOTEL is centrally located between the famous GERLING quarter and the hip Belgian district with its restaurants, bars and shops. The underground station ‘Friesenplatz,’ only 50 meters by foot, connects the hotel to the public transportation network. Guests can reach Cologne central station within a few minutes and the airport Köln/Bonn within 25 minutes.
About PROXIMUS REAL ESTATE AG:
Cologne-based PROXIMUS REAL ESTATE AG with a subsidiary in Berlin is an owner-run corporate group consisting of the business units investment, development and asset management. Apart from investment and asset management for third parties, the company operates as real estate investor and project developer.
Currently, the corporate group comprises real estate assets of over EUR 2.0 billion including strategic involvements.
Together with Quantum AG from Hamburg, PROXIMUS REAL ESTATE AG recently purchased the Gerling quarter and Friesenquarter in Cologne from publicly listed, Vienna-based Immofinanz.
About ingenhoven architects:
In 1985, Christoph Ingenhoven founded ingenhoven architects, a practice that is one of the pioneers of sustainable architecture. The team consists of about 100 members of staff of different disciplines and aims to create architecture that responds to each respective location in a specific way and, at the same time, tries to find architectural answers to urgent questions of the present and near future.
ingenhoven architects has won numerous competitions and awards. Using the term supergreen®, the practice pursues a comprehensive sustainability concept. It develops and builds projects of any size and typology in almost all parts of the world—all in accordance with the highest green building standards, such as those of LEED, Green Star (Australia), BREEAM (GB), DGNB (Germany), and CASBEE (Japan).
About Ruby:
The Munich-based RUBY group, led by founder and CEO Michael Struck, is breaking new ground with their LEAN LUXURY philosophy. By having a lean organizational structure and concentrating on the essentials, RUBY can create a contemporary, affordable form of luxury for the modern, cost and style-conscious customers. Founded in 2013, the group already operates four RUBY HOTELS, with nine more under construction. Also, in central locations of major cities, RUBY now offers RUBY WORKS: flexible, perfectly equipped workspaces and a creative ambiance with access to an inspiring office community. Financially strong partners support RUBY with the expansions. The Austrian Soravia Group, a German family office, the investor Michael Hehn, a private equity fund, and Michael Struck jointly hold the company shares.
