Spanish hotel chain Meliá Hotels has now signed a lease agreement on a fifth hotel in Dusseldorf, which will open its doors in the middle of next year. The new four-star superior hotel, which will be operated by the Innside by Meliá design brand, will be located inside the Colorium building in the popular Medienhafen area of the city - also the capital of the Federal State of North Rhine Westphalia. The landmark building at Speditionstrasse with its 17 levels and 62 metres in height was designed by the British star architect William Allen Alsop for a private investor, and is one of the symbols of the new en vogue quarter, not only because of its extraordinary shape. A façade, comprising more than 2,000 colourful glass panels, was hung in front of it displaying a mixture of full-colour spaces and differentiated four-colour elements. The most spectacular feature is the signal-red technology level on the top floor protruding above the port basin and which is illuminated at night. A trendy Innside Skybar & Lounge has been planned which will not only spoil hotel guests with culinary treats, but also provide fantastic views of the port and the city centre that is only a few minutes away on foot. A total of 134 extremely stylish rooms and suites as well as two state-of-the-art conference rooms spread across floors 5 to 14 and the ground floor. The Colorium’s floors that are not occupied by the hotel contain office rooms as well as the innovation showrooms of a major mobile phone provider or a fashion label and the Dusseldorf branch of a media academy. Kai Lamlé, head of Meliá Hotels International in Germany, headquartered in Ratingen, is happy about the spectacular new hotel in the old city port, which has turned into a new hub for art, communication and creativity. Many of the resident companies appreciate the area’s image as an architectural attraction and are happy to benefit from it: “Our lifestyle Innside brand and the Colorium in the Medienhafen area fit perfectly together when it comes to their creative standards, offering business and city travellers both a fancy environment and an exciting interior.” Planning and realisation of the hotel conversion will be carried out under the successful auspices of Kai 18 Projekte GmbH in Düsseldorf, which was also responsible for the project development, planning and realisation of the that opened in 2008. With the Innside Dusseldorf Hafen, the Mallorca-based hotel chain once again emphasises its commitment to Germany – the group’s second largest European market. Here, the group is currently represented with 22 hotels. Four of them are located in Dusseldorf alone: two Innside hotels, a Meliá and a TRYP by Wyndham hotel. The group is currently examining 20 new objects, primarily in the major cities of Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart. Additional hotels of the stylish Innside brand classified in the four to five-star segments will be opening in Wolfsburg (2013) and Frankfurt (2014).