COMING OUT OF THE CORONA CRISIS

The past few years have been dramatic for all of us and the challenges facing the travel sector have been immense. For many in our industry it was a time to be careful, to reduce investment and try to wait out the pandemic. We took a different approach. Over the past couple of years we have invested countless hours, ideas and €3.5 million in renovation and redesign work across our three houses. While the rest of the world went into slowdown, we have kept The Circus moving forward. And we are not done yet.

With the momentum that we’ve built over the past few years we start the next chapter in The Circus story. We are making changes to the structure of the company, including to our leadership team, and we are proud to announce a major new investment that will bring a fourth house to what from now on will be known as The Circus Group.

Over the next few weeks we will be sharing more details about what we’ve got planned, but the main headlines are as follows:

New Senior Leadership Team

Twenty-five years is a long time, and as The Circus starts its second quarter century, we are freshening things up. As of 1 September 2022, four of the five owners of the company will be making space in the day-to-day operations of The Circus for a new senior leadership team. The Managing Director (with power of attorney) will be Katrin Schönig, with her role as Hotel Director to be taken by her current assistant Juri Westermann.

Alongside Katrin, the Senior Leadership Team will include Sales Director Louis Bonneterre and Hostel Director (and owner) Andrew Ian Hadfield. Other changes include the appointment of Emma Gruber as Head of Gastronomy (Hostel & Hotel) and Melanie Lenk as Head of Administration. We’re looking forward to seeing what new energy and inspiration our new leadership team will bring to The Circus Hostel, Hotel and Apartments in the coming months and years.

New Roles for The Circus Owners

Of course, the four owners who are stepping down from the operational leadership are remaining closely involved with the company and will offer support with their knowledge and experience in their key areas of expertise.

Christian Göppert will continue to work across the Circus properties in the fields of building management and sustainability. Tilman Hierath will be in charge of IT, web and data. Andreas Digel will support the new administration team and Andreas Becker will represent the owners to the senior leadership team, landlords, banks and other third parties, while overseeing project development.

Founding The Circus Group

With these changes we believe strongly that The Circus will benefit from a younger leadership while retaining the experience of the owners and maintaining our independence

and autonomy of action. As part of this, we have also founded The Circus Group, an umbrella structure that will bring together all the entrepreneurial activities of The Circus GbR and the other companies owned by The Circus shareholders.

A Fourth House – The Circus Living

The first big step for The Circus Group is the announcement of a fourth house to go alongside The Circus Hotel, Hostel and Apartments. Opening at the end of 2023, The Circus Living will provide 207 serviced and fully equipped apartments in the centre of Berlin, along with coworking spaces, cafe and rooftop bar.

The new building is close to Ostbahnhof and is a €105 million construction project by long-time Circus partner Wilhelm Hilpert. The spectacular design is one of the last projects of legendary architect Bernd Albers, the man responsible for the city masterplan for the historic centre of Berlin. Albers has created an eye-catching Art Deco design for the building, while the interiors are to be created by Munich-based BelForm, whose attention to quality and functionality perfectly match our ideas of what upscale living spaces should offer.

Now more than ever, the subject of sustainability is a key topic for everyone in our industry and it has long been an important part of The Circus philosophy. The Circus Living will be a KfW50-efficient building, making it one of the most energy efficient buildings in the whole of Berlin.

Design, function and fun will all come together in what is one of our favourite parts of the new project – the rooftop bar. We’re really excited that Nico Zillmann – the genius behind Lost my Voice in The Circus Hotel – will be travelling this journey with us as he brings his concept to the new space above Berlin. We’re sure that Nico will turn the 700m2 space with its panoramic views of Berlin’s skyline into the city’s hottest new nightspot and we can’t wait to sip that first cocktail above the rooftops.

As we said earlier, over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing more details about all these changes and what we’ve got planned for The Circus Group in the months and years to come. For now, let’s just say that we’re energised and excited, ready for the next chapter and eager to get started.

Coming out of the Corona Crisis