It's clearly the flagship opening that the Hilton group is expecting in 2025: the legendary Waldorf Astoria in New York will welcome its first guests next spring after many years of closure. Its renovation has taken a long time since the last event organised in its Grand Ballroom at the end of February 2017, delayed in particular by the bankruptcy of its owner, the Chinese insurer Anbang, which was succeeded in 2020 by another Chinese group, Dajia, as well as by the pandemic.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for the architecture, Pierre-Yves Rochon for the interior design: big names have been associated with the rebirth of this legendary Art Deco monument. A renaissance that is taking shape through major changes, with the number of rooms being drastically reduced from over 1,400 to 375, to make way for private residences sold as luxurious pied-à-terre in the heart of Manhattan.
In addition to some of the largest rooms and suites in the city, the Waldorf Astoria is getting back to business with a vast spa, several dining options, including a table by chef Michael Anthony, and, for event organisers, a modernised 4,000 m² meeting and event space, his Grand Ballroom to once again become the meeting place for the whole of New York.
The Waldorf Astoria brand, launched by Hilton in 2006 and built on the global recognition of this flagship hotel, will be showcased outside New York next year, notably with a second hotel in Shanghai in the first quarter of 2025. After an initial address on the Bund, within the historic Shanghai Club, the luxury brand will be setting up in the "new BundThe Qiantan business district is being developed along the Huangpu river, on the Pudong side.
Also in Asia, a Waldorf Astoria is expected in Japan's second city, Osaka, with a 252-room hotel next to the new complex. Grand Green OsakaRothe Heart Square Umekita is at the heart of a vast urban development as the city prepares to host World Expo 2025. Connected to the railway station, organised around the Umekita Park and featuring shops and restaurants, the site also boasts a vast 1,500 m² event space, Rothe Heart Square Umekita. This will be the setting for the new hotel, which will offer 252 rooms, ample capacity for meetings and receptions, as well as the Waldorf Astoria brand's signature lounge bar, Peacock Alley.
While the luxury brand is also preparing its arrival in Costa Rica, at Punta Cacique, among other new resorts expected around the world by the American group next year, Hilton will soon be offering new urban hotels to business travellers. In the United States, 2025 will be marked by the debut of its new mid-range long-stay brand LivSmart Studios in Kokomo, Indiana, and a new development in Dallas for Graduate by Hilton, its recently acquired lifestyle brand for university campuses.
In Europe, the year will be marked by another renaissance, that of the Hilton Athens, opened in 1963. Reconverted into a luxury complex with boutiques, a private club and a swimming pool, the establishment will be rebranded under the Conrad banner, for a hotel offering 280 rooms and suites with a view of the Greek capital. In addition to Conrad Athens The Ilisian, next summer the upmarket brand will be opening in a historic building in the heart of Hamburg, on the highly commercial Mönckebergstraße, for a hotel with 238 rooms and suites and nine meeting rooms.
Other key openings in the EMEA region include a Hampton by Hilton budget hotel in Tallinn, Estonia, a Canopy by Hilton in Cape Town and a Hilton in Accra in Africa. As for the Middle East, the region will be the first outside the United States of the Signia by Hilton MICE brand. Next January, this brand, which focuses on hotels with a large capacity in terms of accommodation as for meetings and eventswill make its debut in Amman.
In the Jordanian capital, business travellers will find 272 rooms, seven dining options, a spa and a club lounge. Above all, the Signia by Hilton Amman offers over 5,000 sq. m. of MICE space, including a convention centre with a capacity of 3,400, including 20 meeting rooms.
