AccorHotels launching Jo&Joe brand hotel in Brazil

AccorHotels Group is taking its millennial-focused Jo&Joe brand beyond Europe—and the brand's first American hotel will not be in North America.

Accor acquired the six houses that make up the architectural complex Largo do Boticário in the Cosme Velho neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for R$20 million. The group plans to invest an additional R$30 million to renovate and furnish the heritage-listed property. The 70-room Jo&Joe Rio is slated to open in 2020. “AccorHotels has been investing in Brazil for 40 years, and the purchase of this architectural landmark only strengthens our commitment to the country’s growth. We are betting on this location and will transform it into an incredible place to attract tourists and locals starting in 2020, when it should open,” said AccorHotels CEO Patrick Mendes in a statement.

Lakasa Development Empreendimentos and the Ernani Freire & Associados Architect firm are designing the project. Meanwhile, the State Institute of Cultural Patrimony (Inepac) will oversee the restoration of the property in line with the original design. “The regeneration of the complex involves the spatial and technological updating of the environments, adapting them to the new uses of a primarily young public. The theme of this regeneration is to expand naturally into the surroundings, involving other points of interest in the neighborhood–the 'positive metastasis' of the Catalan architect Oriol Bohigas,” said Ernani Freire, founder of the Ernani Freire & Associados Architect firm.

The site in the heritage-listed rainforest next to the Corcovado mountain and the Christ the Redeemer statue was originally the dispensary of Brazilian pharmacist Joaquim Luís da Silva Souto in 1831. Largo do Boticário later became the home of court attendant Marshal Joaquim Alberto de Souza Silveira—the godfather of Brazilian writer Machado de Assis—in 1846. 

Jo&Joe Rio, Brazil. Photo credit: AccorHotels Group

The new hotel is the latest addition to the Jo&Joe development pipeline. The brand has another 50 projects planned by 2020. The next Jo&Joe hotel to open this year is the Paris Gentilly, followed by Rio, Budapest in Hungary, Krakow in Poland, London and Paris Buzenval.