There is once again a perspective for the more than 100-strong workforce at the hotel near Frankfurt. A special feature made the sale of the former Hilton Hotel more difficult.
Luxury hotel in Gravenbruch: The hotel has a new owner. Photo: Gökay Gürsoy/HB
The insolvent Grand Hotel Gravenbruch in Neu-Isenburg has received the internationally active Comer Group International as the new owner, announced insolvency administrator Joachim Kühne.
The takeover was delayed due to European sanctions against a former co-owner of the hotel.
The Federal Office of Economics and Export Control and the Bundesbank finally approved the sale.
The more than 100-strong workforce has been maintaining hotel operations in emergency mode since mid-August; regular business has yet to resume.
Dusseldorf. After months of uncertainty, the Grand Hotel Gravenbruch in Neu-Isenburg has a new owner: the house was handed over to the internationally active Comer Group International on Friday, as insolvency administrator Joachim Kühne from the law firm CMS Hasche Sigle announced.
One special feature made the takeover of the former Hilton Hotel more difficult: European sanctions law. The Iranian businessman Ali Ansari, one of the previous co-owners of the hotel, has been under sanctions by the European Union (EU) since July 30th. The EU accuses Ansari of supporting the Iranian regime and the Revolutionary Guard.
As a result of the EU sanctions, German authorities froze the luxury hotel's funds. Even insolvency administrator Kühne only had very limited access to it. Kühne had already reached an agreement with the British Comer Group in mid-October. But the authorities' approval for the sale of the hotel was missing until the end.
Sanctioning authorities had to approve the sale
In addition to the Bundesbank, the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) was involved. Kühne had repeatedly called on the authorities to allow the hotel to be sold.
The BAFA has now “approved the transaction – i.e. the transfer of the property and the hotel operations as a whole”. In addition, the Bundesbank gave the green light for the payment of the purchase price. "The mortgage creditor was initially paid off from the purchase price for the property. The remaining purchase price was paid into my special insolvency accounts," said Kühne. The shareholder – Ansari – did not receive any payments.
The preliminary insolvency proceedings of the owner and operating companies behind the hotel were initiated on July 23, about a week before the EU sanctions. The luxury hotel had already run into difficulties before the EU measures.
Great Britain had already imposed sanctions against Ansari in autumn 2025. This is said to have prompted the booking platform Booking.com to remove hotels with suspected connections to Ansari from its offerings. Ultimately, Gravenbruch was thrown out by the world's largest provider.
On July 10 this year, a few weeks before the EU, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Ansari as a “major donor” to Iranian Supreme Leader Moschtaba Khamenei. US companies were supposed to end business with Ansari's company Smart Global Limited, at that time one of the shareholders of the hotel in Gravenbruch, by August 9th. The US hotel chain Hilton terminated the contract and moved out at the end of August. The insolvency proceedings were finally opened on October 1st.
Comer Group has been active in Europe since 2006
Insolvency administrator Kühne described the new owner, the Comer Group, as an “experienced investor”. According to its own information, the British group has been active in Europe since 2006 and has since acquired shopping centers, office buildings, commercial space and residential building sites.
According to the company website, it owns, among other things, the high-rise “Die Pyramide” in the Marzahn-Hellersdorf district of Berlin. According to the law firm CMS Hasche Sigle, the company is also “the operator and owner of several hotels in Germany.”
With the takeover, there is once again a perspective for the more than 100-strong workforce that has been keeping the hotel running in emergency mode since mid-August - the time since it no longer accommodated guests.
It is still unclear when regular hotel operations can be expected to resume. The new owner will inform about further plans in due course, the law firm wrote.
