BNP Paribas Asset Management has sold the building at 43 Gran Vía, in central Madrid, for €80 million ($92.5 million), according to a report by Spanish outlet Hosteltur relayed by CoStar News. The identity of the buyer has not been disclosed. The property houses the Room Mate Macarena, a 120-room hotel operated by the Room Mate Hotels brand.
A building with a dual history, hotel and cinema
The building at 43 Gran Vía opened in January 1945 under the name Hotel Rex. Until 2005, it also housed the Cine Rex, a 500-seat Art Deco cinema that occupied part of the address. This dual hospitality and cultural heritage forms part of the architectural fabric of Madrid’s most iconic thoroughfare.
Tryp by Wyndham, owned by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, operated the property between 2009 and 2020, before Room Mate Hotels took over its management. Other heritage conversion projects have recently marked the Madrid hotel market, such as the conversion of a 1920s Gran Vía building into the Brach hotel.
A chain of institutional owners
According to CoStar data, AXA Real Estate acquired the building in 2015 for approximately $41 million (around €37 million at the exchange rate at the time). AXA’s investment management and real estate activities were subsequently taken over by BNP Paribas in the following years, which explains the transfer of ownership to the French group.
This transaction forms part of a particularly active Madrid market for institutional hotel assets, as also illustrated by King Street Capital’s €400 million investment in Room00 Group, intended to fund the acquisition and renovation of hotels in several cities across southern Europe, including Madrid.
Room Mate Hotels, an operator in consolidation
Private equity firms TPG Angelo Gordon and Westmont Hospitality Group own the Room Mate Hotels brand. TPG, before its acquisition of Angelo Gordon in 2023 for $2.7 billion (around €2.48 billion), and Westmont acquired the Room Mate Macarena in 2022 as part of a 20-hotel portfolio whose price was not disclosed.
Based in Madrid, Room Mate Hotels now operates 32 properties across two brands, Room Mate Hotels and Room Mate Collection, in four European countries, including 21 in Spain and 5 in Madrid. The group also acquired a ten-hotel portfolio in the Spanish city of Valencia in 2024, and is currently developing a project in Geneva, the only item in its pipeline to date.
At a Glance by The Hospitality Tribune
Asset: Building at Gran Vía 43, central Madrid, including the 120-room Room Mate Macarena
Deal value: €80 million ($92.5 million), per Hosteltur reporting; buyer undisclosed
Seller: BNP Paribas Asset Management, which inherited the asset via AXA Real Estate’s 2015 acquisition (~$41 million)
Building history: opened 1945 as Hotel Rex; housed the 500-seat Art Deco Cine Rex until 2005; operated by Tryp by Wyndham 2009-2020
Brand ownership: Room Mate Hotels controlled by TPG Angelo Gordon and Westmont Hospitality Group since 2022
Portfolio: 32 hotels across two brands in 4 countries, including 21 in Spain and 5 in Madrid; Geneva hotel in development pipeline
