(Mark Your Calendars: RealShare HOTELS 2011, September 15 in New York City)

SLOTERDIJK, AMSTERDAM-IVG is converting the 90,000-square-foot Orly Plaza office building here into a 252-room Holiday Inn Express Hotel, in part due to the suffering Amsterdam office market. The Vincent Hotel Group is partnering with IVG on the project.

The building was mostly empty, said IVG Netherlands CEO Hugo van Woerden in a statement. The conversion started recently, and the new hotel will open by the end of the year. The hotel is closer to the airport than downtown hotels.

Jones Lang LaSalle assisted IVG in the partnership. Colliers International Hotels advised Vincent.

Dirk Bakker, a partner with the local office of Colliers, tells GlobeSt.com that the Amsterdam market has a vacancy of about 20%, and this Sloterdijk region is more like 30% vacant. “This may change over time because of the excellent logistical position of the area. However, these numbers made us persuade the owner of the building to convert the office into a hotel.”

He says that typically in the Netherlands, office leases are closed for a five to 10-year period, but the hotel was able to achieve a longer-lease, and doesn’t have to pay such large incentives in attracting tenants. “In the hotel case a long term lease contract is a much better case in relation to the amount for incentives,” Bakker says.

This is Vincent’s second Holiday Inn Express in the local region. Earlier this year, the company opened a similar property in Schiphol/Hoofddorp, and is working on more hotels in the area. The company is working with Dutch Hotel Partners on this new project.