Verdissimo: Green Hotels Coming to Buenos Aires

This 5-star boutique hotel will be the first in Argentina built to LEED certification standards.

While yesterday’s post focused on a stalled Puerto Madero transaction, today we look at one that is already beyond the drawing board and poised to raise the bar of corporate sustainability in the Buenos Aires lodging arena.

Scheduled to open in 2011, the Hotel Own Puerto Madero promises to be the first hotel in Argentina built to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standards, the benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings.

According to USGBC, 40 U.S. hotels are currently certified “green” with another 900 currently working toward certification. Swiss Finance & Property endeavors to build the Hotel Own to LEED standards which mandate varying degrees of water conservation, energy conservation, local material use, recycled material use, natural lighting and other green features.

SF&P describes the Own as “a boutique hotel with 5-star service, (featuring) 26 rooms, 4 of which are suites, full guest amenities such as pool, gym, roof top terrace and a restaurant and bar.” And the developer’s long term goal: “Make this new hotel the destination of choice for environmentally conscious tourists and businessmen alike.”

Only time will tell if other boutique and major chains follow SF&P’s green lead in Argentina: an important first step in a market where sustainability doesn’t usually factor into the equation when new buildings are in the planning stage. The additional costs and effort on the front-end should be more than offset upon the hotel’s completion given the number of international tourists who travel to Buenos Aires from countries where companies have already embraced sustainability initiatives.

For more information about Buenos Aires hotels, download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.