London based Lonrho is opening the first easyHotel.com branded hotel by the end of the year under its exclusive franchise agreement with Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou's easyGroup.

The Africa-focused conglomerate is turning the historic former Stuttafords Department Store building in the Johannesburg Central Business District (CBD) in South Africa into the easyHotel Rissik Street.

Rissik Street will be the first hotel under the exclusive 20 year master franchise agreement (MFA) with easyHotel, and Lonrho wants to establish an easyHotel network across the continent. The MFA gives Lonrho the exclusive rights to the easyHotel brand in Africa and sets out an agreed opening schedule for 50 properties by 2016. 

Lonrho chairman David Lenigas said: "This new hotel project between Sir Stelios and Lonrho starts the roll-out of easyHotels.com throughout Africa. There is a large gap in the market for a quality budget hotel and the easyHotel.com room offering is ideally suited to fill this much needed gap across the continent.”

South Africa's luxury department store Stuttafords opened its first Johannesburg store on Rissik Street and Pritchard Street in 1893. The ten-storey building was one of the first skyscrapers in the Johannesburg CBD.

The building remains a major landmark of Johannesburg and is across the road from a busy retail centre and the Johannesburg High Court, one of the most high profile locations in the country.
 
Lonrho has signed a 30 year lease with Afhco on the Stuttafords site. Afhco currently owns 62 buildings in the Johannesburg inner city, representing approximately 3,800 rental apartments and about 300,000 square metres of retail, commercial and light industrial space. The Afhco Group, founded in 1996, is a leading investor, developer, and manager of affordable housing and commercial property in the Johannesburg CBD.