Elgel Hotel & Spa, a local four-star hotel built for 250 million Br, joins the burgeoning hospitality industry in the capital. The new hotel, which opened its doors two weeks ago, is located around Qore roundabout on the road to Jemo.

Having six-storeys and two basements, the building of the hotel spreads across a footprint of 750Sqm of land that was acquired by lease ten years ago. With 52 rooms, the Hotel opened for business on December 18, 2019.

It boasts a gym, a spa, two conference rooms and one meeting room. It has an outdoor swimming pool that is currently under construction.

Elgel will join the 275 hotels registered in the capital, of which 13 are international brands. Five local brand hotels are also under construction.

The hotel is owned by Elegel Trading Plc, which was founded by Elias Gezahagne and Genet Wondimagne with capital of 80 million Br. Re-established as a trading company eight years ago, the establishment was formerly known as Genet Wondimagne Garage.

The Garage, which is located near Gotera, has been in the business of car maintenance for two decades. It has been engaging in the business of maintaining everything from sedans to field cars and has a well-known portfolio working on contract with insurance companies like Nib, Nyala, the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation and the Ethiopian Investment Commission.

The construction of the Hotel, which took seven years, was managed and handled by the brother of Elias, Samuel Gezahagne, owner of Aragon Engineering, which is behind the renovation work of Kenya Embassy and Alemgena Factory.

Various design changes are the main reason why the construction took seven years, according to Elias, the co-founder and CEO of the Hotel.

"We had a lot of design changes particularly with the interior design," he told Fortune.

The final design and supervision work of the Hotel was awarded to four-year-old Render Consulting Architects & Engineering Plc. The company is also behind the interior designs of different banks and hotels like the under-construction Hawelti Hotel in Meqelle and apartments in the capital.