The economy design brand prizeotel continues its international expansion and announces a hotel in Antwerp, Belgium. The hotel, inspired by star designer Karim Rashid, will open in spring 2020 with 144 rooms in the port city. After Berne and Vienna, the prizeotel in Antwerp is the brand’s third home in other European countries.
“With the signing of the first contract in Belgium, we are keeping what we promised. In addition to the core markets in Germany, prizeotel is growing selectively at selected international locations,” says Marco Nussbaum, founder and CEO of prizeotel. “With our design concept and our corporate structure, which thanks to flat hierarchies ensures rapid decision-making and efficiency, we are generating growing interest, including from foreign investors,” says Nussbaum. The hotel in Antwerp is prizeotel’s twelfth hotel, which is in the brand’s pipeline alongside established hotels in Bremen, Hamburg and Hanover.
Developed by Triple Living NV, guests will find the new hotel in the “Het Eilandje” quarter near the port of Antwerp. In the city known for its diamond trade, a building with state-of-the-art architecture is being built. In addition to the prizeotel, it will also house 144 student apartments, 74 condominiums and over 1,000 square metres of retail space. Eilandje has become one of Antwerp’s hippest districts. Gastronomy, museums and old trading houses radiate a unique flair and attract crowds of visitors and travellers. “Exactly the right location for a prizeotel,” says Nussbaum, who refers to the tourist significance of the port city.
The largest city in Flanders attracts more than a million visitors every year, who spend an average of two nights in Antwerp. The city’s hotels welcome about half of leisure and the other half business travellers. Around two thirds of the tourists come from abroad, one third from Belgium. In recent years, Antwerp has seen a steady increase in the number of overnight stays to over 1.9 million. In addition, the European Capital of Culture of 1993 is increasingly positioning itself as a destination for congresses and meetings and is now, after Brussels, the second most important city in Belgium for conferences and events.
“What the city has so far been without is a genuine economy-design-hotel with an international outlook. We are now closing this gap with our prizeotel in a highly demanded location,” reports Nussbaum. The oldest harbour area in the town is a popular “hotspot” in Antwerp. Completely surrounded by water, the district convinces with its historical charm combined with modern architecture. Among the most popular attractions are the “MAS Museum aan de Stroom”, the “Red Star Line Museum” and the “Port House”. Numerous gastronomic and artistic offerings underline the attractiveness of the waterfront quarter.
The Belgian port city is known worldwide for its diamond trade. But already in the past the city had a lot to offer: In the 15th and 16th centuries, Antwerp was one of the largest cities in the world and at some times the continent’s most important trading metropolis. World-famous artists, such as the baroque painter Rubens, had their place of work here. Today, tourists visit places such as the “Plantin-Moretus-Museum”, the “Maison Guiette of Le Corbusier” and the tower of the “Cathedral of Our Lady”, which are all UNESCO World Heritage Sites.