The 680 Hotel is located in Nairobi’s Central Business District and has been purchased by millionaire Chris Musau of Machakos.
The 680 Hotel was purchased by Musau, owner of the Maanzoni lodges in Machakos, for an estimated cost of Sh1.2 billion.
“Maanzoni has completed the sale of 680 Hotel. They needed a presence in Nairobi’s city centre,” said a transaction advisor involved in the deal.
The hotel, which has 680 beds, was reportedly bringing in up to Sh213 million per year as of 2018.
Billionaire Jagdesh Patel previously owned it, and he had given property management instructions to sell it along with seven other hotels: Boulevard Hotel, Castle Royal Hotel (Mombasa), Elementaita Lodge, Samburu Lodge, Sentrim Tsavo, Sentrim Amboseli, and Sentrim Mara.
Deputy President William Ruto’s interest in the property is said to have attracted the attention of both domestic and foreign investors in the hotel.
Musau is a real estate investor who began purchasing real estate at the age of 22, when he paid Sh280 per acre to purchase a 10,000-acre plot of land from a foreigner.
Two years after selling his retail operation to Naivas, he began the Sh680 million Maazoni Lodge in Machakos as a hobby.
“None of my children were keen on taking over operations of Nova Supermarkets in Machakos and Komarock that saw me work for eight straight years starting at 6am to midnight daily,” he said in a past interview.
A few days before to the sale of the 680 Hotel, a private equity fund backed by Qatar purchased the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Upperhill for Sh4.6 billion.
According to regulatory documents, Golden Jubilee Limited, of which millionaire Akbarali controls 97.5 percent and Anish Akbarali 2.5 percent, owns and operates Crowne Plaza.
