Conscious Hotels takes first step outside Amsterdam and opens boutique hotel in former Tivoli Oudegracht in Utrecht

Expansion is next step in achieving 2,500 rooms in Europe by 2030

The sustainable hotel group Conscious Hotels will open their first hotel outside the capital in the spring of 2025. The monumental building in Utrecht will be preserved according to Conscious Hotels’ philosophy, but with an eye for the special historical properties.

The iconic pop venue Tivoli Oudegracht has found a new use. The complex has been vacant for ten years, but with the arrival of Conscious Hotels, among others, life is coming back to the brewery. Real estate developer Stadswaarde sought a sustainable partner to open a boutique hotel on the historic site and ended up with Conscious Hotels. The hotel group didn’t have to think long. The city, the location, the property – it turned out to be a great opportunity for the first steps outside Amsterdam and the further realization of 2,500 new rooms in Europe by 2030 after the founding of Conscious Group and the acquisition of Hotel V & The Lobby last year.

The Conscious Hotel in Utrecht consists of 46 rooms and a beautiful lobby where local residents and hotel guests come together. Sustainability is also central in this Conscious hotel, the ambition is therefore energy label A+ for the boutique hotel. The interior is composed of recycled and upcycled furniture and they work exclusively with vegetarian and organic products. Furthermore, solar panels are being installed and they are collaborating in planting a new forest through Hotels for Trees. All modifications are carefully considered to preserve the historic elements of the building, such as the monumental fireplaces in some of the rooms and the stained glass in the lobby. The original windows also remain where they are, but the property is well insulated through the use of rear windows.

Marco Lemmers, co-founder and CEO of Conscious Hotels: ‘We are going to realize a beautiful eco-sexy boutique hotel in this Utrecht monument that the city will be proud of. Utrecht has long been on our wish list. This bustling and fast-growing, sustainable city with beautiful historic city center, is attractive for both leisure and business guests. We are therefore looking forward to the realization and opening next year!’

Former pop temple

A monastery was founded between 1248 and 1267 in the building we now know as Tivoli, which later served as an orphanage, among other things. After years of vacancy, it was squatted off and on in the 1970s, until in 1981 the first concert was held in what later grew into one of the most famous pop venues in the Netherlands. With the renovation of the building and opening of the boutique hotel, the 750-year-old building and garden are once again open to all Dutch and international visitors. There will be memories of concerts by Prince, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana, bringing Tivoli and the piece of Oudegracht back to life next year.

About Conscious Hotels
Conscious Hotels is part of Conscious Group (which also includes Hotel V) and was founded in 2009 by Marco Lemmers as the first and only sustainable hotel chain in the Netherlands. It currently includes four hotels in Amsterdam: Conscious Hotel Museum Square, Conscious Hotel Vondelpark, Conscious Hotel Amsterdam City (The Tire Station) and Conscious Hotel Westerpark. Dutch investment fund NIPA Capital took a 75% stake in the Amsterdam hotel group in June 2022. This means that Conscious Hotels is set to grow. The ambition is to increase the number of rooms fivefold in the Netherlands and Europe.

About City Value

Stadswaarde is an inner-city real estate developer focusing on the development of intelligent and attractive buildings for sustainable, healthy and livable inner cities of the Randstad, Brabantse Stedenrij and Arnhem/Nijmegen. Jeroen Messemaeckers van de Graaff is director of Stadswaarde and has extensive experience in the development of (monumental) real estate.