One of London’s most beloved buildings, exhibition center and arts and entertainment venue Olympia, has been revamped to tune of £1.3 billion ($1.74 billion) anchored by a Hyatt hotel, with work due to be completed in 2027.
First opened in 1886, some of its many parts were demolished and new buildings were put up in their places. Other parts, including the Grand, Pillar, Olympia National and Olympia Central halls, are graded, nationally listed architecture of importance that cannot be knocked down or changed notably.
The owner of Olympia is Jersey, Channel Islands-based Olympus Property Holding Ltd., a joint venture of London-based private-equity firm Yoo Capital Investment Management; German real estate investment firm Deutsche Finance Group; and German pension fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer.
Olympus Property also owns the 204-room Hyatt Regency London Olympia, with Hyatt Hotels Corp. having agreed to a long-term management contract. It officially opened on July 7.
It is a conversion of the Art Deco, nationally listed Maclise Road Car Park, which was built in 1937 by Joseph Emberton and was the first multi-story car park in the United Kingdom, a revolutionary space with room for 2,000 vehicles.
The official designation of its listed status remarks that it contains a “bold, streamlined design characterised by extremely long banded glazing strips and curved ramp towers, the composition of the distinctive main elevation facilitated by the sophisticated underlying structural frame.”
Georges Moura, general manager of the Hyatt Regency London Olympia, said the history of the area, and the role the new hotel will play in its new era, is an important element of what its staff wants to present to hotel guests.
Certain aspects of the car park were not changed when it became a hotel.
“Olympia always has been important for London, but what we have today, really, it is a new destination," Moura said. “We have worked very closely with the owners of Olympia. [The hotel] needed to complement" Olympia.
Immediately adjacent to the hotel, and accessible to it without needing to leave, is the Idalia restaurant, within Pillar Hall.
He mentioned the June 16 opening of music arena, British Airways ARC, which has space for 3,800 people; 1,575-seat BA Theatre, to open next year and slated to be the largest theater to open in London in 50 years. Other nearby attractions include the international convention center, which will open by the end of the year and 30 restaurants once renovation work is fully completed.
Other parts of the renovated area include a 2.5-acre public space, 550,000 square feet of office space and a school for 11- to 18-year-olds.
Marc Jacheet, appointed in July 2025 as executive vice president and group president, Europe, Africa and Middle East, Hyatt Hotels Corp., said the Olympia hotel is the fifth Hyatt Regency in London and has been designed to have both corporate and leisure demand.
He is no stranger to the demand drivers for the hotel and the buildings it is attached to, his career having been largely in retail, notably at firms De Beers Group, Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon, and Tiffany & Co.
He said the goal always is to have both consistency and differentiation.
“We’re looking for a point of reference. … We’re looking for the lighthouses within the mists,” he said.
The other Hyatt Regency hotels in London are in the neighborhoods of Blackfriars, Marylebone, Stratford and Westminster. There are now 1,216 Hyatt Regency rooms in the capital, according to CoStar.
The other hotel due to open at London Olympia will debut later this year, the 146-room CitizenM London Olympia, within Olympia National Hall.
Jacheet said Hyatt now has 18 hotels in the U.K.
“We believe there is lots of white space, and the U.K. is a feeder market, along with, in Europe, Spain and Germany," he said.
He points to the firm’s 66 million loyalty club members, which he said contributes to 50% of rooms, signifying additional white space.
Across Europe, the Hyatt strategy is to expand in its top 10 European feeder markets and in its top 20 European luxury and lifestyle destinations.
“The Hyatt Regency Rome opens very soon, and ski hotels and resorts are another big push,” Jacheet said. “Brands create value, emotional and functional value. They offer quality and reassurance. There is an appetite for the premiumization of all-inclusives, which offer sun, sea and safety.”