Chris Musau is the billionaire businessman who currently owns 680 Hotel, a 3-star hotel in the heart of the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) that prides itself in being one of the city’s most iconic and recognizable hotels.
680 hotel is popular with business travelers and locals seeking to enjoy staycations within the city. It is only one of the hotels in Musau’s hospitality portfolio, with others including Maanzoni Lodges in Machakos.
680 is however a major earner for Musau. At the time Musau acquired it for Ksh1.2 billion, last year, it was raking in over Ksh213 million annually. He undertook a refurbishment of the facility giving it a boost. It was originally named 680 in reference to the number of beds at the facility.
It immediately gave his hotel group a major presence in the capital.
In a transaction facilitated by Knight Frank, Musau bought the hotel from Nairobi mogul Jagdesh Patel. Patel had enlisted Knight Frank to sell off eight hotels he owned as part of his Sentrim group – with others including Boulevard Hotel, Castle Royal Hotel (Mombasa), Elementaita Lodge, Samburu Lodge, Sentrim Tsavo, Sentrim Amboseli and Sentrim Mara.
Musau’s ventures in the hospitality sector weren’t his first in the world of business.
He got into the hospitality industry after making a fortune from the sale of his Nova Supermarkets chain to Naivas, the country’s largest retailer.
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Musau, a brother in law to the late former Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo, proceeded to invest some of his earnings, alongside financing from local lenders to acquire a 10,000 acre ranch in Machakos that also hosts wildlife including zebras and ostriches.
It is on the ranch that he built Maanzoni Lodges, one of the largest and most popular hotels in the Ukambani region.
The hotel has over 300 rooms and 15 conference halls. It regularly hosts political leaders’ private meetings in the region, with Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka among guests who frequent the hotel.
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Excellent read.