Austria: Developer GBI has held an official topping-out ceremony for the Graz IntercityHotel, which will offer 229 rooms and 187 student apartments in a separate SMARTments student block.
Development of the two buildings is taking place on a formerly derelict site. The GBI Group is responsible for project development in both cases.
The SMARTments student block will be completed in the spring of 2020, and the IntercityHotel is scheduled to open in the autumn of the same year. Both the buildings and a joint underground car park providing 75 spaces are being finished by the construction company Granit, which is also acting as general contractor.
“This new build project will do a great deal to enhance the attractiveness of our city and the southern railway access point,” said Graz’s mayor Siegfried Nagl. “One of the key outcomes to emerge from a working meeting with Graz’s hotel owners in May this year was a desire to strengthen the city’s brand identity as a tourism and conference destination. This venture is a vital piece of the jigsaw. It will also create extensive accommodation facilities for visitors in an outstanding location. Students who come to Graz because of our reputation as a city of research and development will also be able to find a temporary home.”
“This project in Graz represents the first time that we have linked a conventional hotel with student accommodation on a single site in Austria,” said Karl-Heinz Daurer, managing director of GBI Project Development Austria. “Mixed-use concepts of this kind have proved their worth in Germany, and they are also a conceivable option for other Austrian cities such as Innsbruck, Linz, Salzburg or Klagenfurt.”
