April 6 (SeeNews) - The openings of the Hyatt and Grand Hotel Millennium hotels in Bulgaria's capital Sofia, planned for the spring of 2020, will be postponed due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, real estate consultancy Cushman&Wakefield Forton told SeeNews on Monday.
The planned reopening of the revamped four-star Rodina hotel will also be delayed over the COVID-19 outbreak, Forton, a strategic partner of Cushman&Wakefield for North Macedonia and Bulgaria, said in an e-mailed statement.
According to the consultancy, the opening of accommodation facilities with a total of 1,070 rooms in four and five-star hotels in Sofia planned for this year has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The five-star Hyatt Regency Sofia, located within the center of Sofia, will feature 183 rooms and suites, according to information available on the website of the Hyatt hotel chain.
The five-star Grand Hotel Millennium Sofia will have 400 rooms, information published on the project website showed.
The Bulgarian market attracted 75.2 million euro ($81.2 million) in investments in hotels last year, the consultancy added.
A big part of deals concern projects outside Sofia - in big cities and resorts, Plamen Bachev, manager in charge of consultancy and hotel services at Cushman&Wakefield Forton, said in the statement.
Interest on the part of the international hotel brands is shifting towards the three-star category, he added.
In Southeast Europe, highest profitability rates in 2019, of 7.0-7.5%, were recorded in Sofia and Bucharest, according to the consultancy.
($ = 0.9259 euro)