This article was translated from the Italian edition of Lugano Tribune.

French hotel chain B&B Hotels will occupy five floors of the Torre Ovest, the office-and-hotel tower in Lugano's Polo sportivo e degli eventi (PSE) at Cornaredo. The opening is planned for 2029, once construction is complete. The news was confirmed by Federico Haas of Hotellerie Suisse, as reported by laRegione.

The announcement gives a tenant to the real-estate deal that saw the UBS Living Plus fund acquire the Torre Ovest in May: an office-and-hotel tower of about 6,200 square metres, 4,122 for offices and 2,059 for the hotel, built on a 90-year building right granted by the City of Lugano. According to the specialist outlet immobilienbusiness.ch, B&B Hotels has leased about a third of the space for 15 years.

The deal's figures, again per immobilienbusiness.ch: investment costs of about CHF 42 million, expected annual rental income of CHF 1.9 million and an expected gross yield of around 4.5 percent. Construction is to start in September 2026, with completion in early 2029.

For UBS Living Plus, the largest of UBS's three Living real-estate funds with a CHF 3.24 billion portfolio, the Torre Ovest was the half-year's only acquisition: immobilienbusiness.ch reports it in its account of the funds' last results before the three funds were merged into a single vehicle, completed at the end of September with retroactive effect to June 30.

The hotel vocation was already on paper

That the Torre Ovest could host a hotel was already written into the PSE's documents. In municipal message no. 10774 on the public-private partnership agreement, the city states that the choice of the tower's use is for the private investor to make, and that levels 7 to 11 could be imagined for hotel use to support the PSE's attractiveness, including for group and corporate retreats.

The tower is part of the PSE's complementary buildings, the hub's second phase: the city's third half-yearly report puts the project's cost ceiling, updated to September 30, 2025, at CHF 190,102,412, including 8.1 percent VAT.

The city's timetable places the Torre Ovest between September 2026 and October 2028, according to the third half-yearly PSE report of October 2025. Meanwhile the sporting heart of the hub is already reality: the AIL Arena has been handed over to the city by general contractor HRS.

In the plans, the shared lobby on the ground floor, with meeting space and a café bar, connects with the lower level, where further meeting units and gathering areas are planned: the upper floors follow an office layout, adaptable to the end user's needs.

With B&B Hotels arriving, the Cornaredo district adds a hospitality piece to the hub's design: offices, hotel and events in the same quarter, steps from the arena.