The challenge? To show that inclusion and financial sustainability can exist together.

It’s happening here in Cesenatico, in Romagna: it’s here that Albergo Etico, the Social Enterprise formed in Asti in 2006 which helps disabled youngsters to start on the road towards a future of independence in the tourist reception sector, will officially open a regenerated hotel in the Spring of 2023. A building where fondazione illimity has unleashed a hidden potential which has now been brought out into the open thanks to the regeneration work carried out by the experts of illimity, neprix and their partners who believed in the project. The objective is to become competitive on the market, to work on a level playing field in an area, the Romagna Riviera, which is already full of options.

“Albergo Etico Cesenatico is a project that will be able to stand on its own two feet, thereby creating the conditions for complete financial sustainability”, is the view of Elena Perriello, Head of Portfolio & Asset Optimization in illimity and a member of the fondazione illimity board. Alex Toselli, the President of Albergo Etico, added: “In addition to providing training, job placement and professional growth for disabled people, the hotel will also further the right to travel for the more fragile, as well as encourage integration and social inclusion, including in relations with suppliers, and foster a lower environmental impact”.

The history of the project

The facility, situated close to the sea, has long been experiencing difficulties. “We are talking about a hotel complex acting as security for a non-performing loan whose potential we sensed”, explained Irene Vecchio, Technical & Property Team Leader of the Real Estate Department in neprix, who has been following the property redevelopment project from the very start. “We therefore decided to regenerate the facility and give it a ‘new life’ through fondazione illimity and its partner Albergo Etico”.  

neprix provided all the technical support required to get operations under way: a preliminary due diligence, a time and cost assessment, the identification of the necessary restructuring work, the preparation of the specifications and the selection of the company to whom these should be entrusted, interaction with the public authorities, contracts and agreements, utility registration transfers and the activation of new utility agreements to enable the facility to function.

“neprix managed the credit strategy to ensure that the ideas arrived at the practical result. We could say that it acted as the translator”, Vecchio continued. A task that called for constant presence in loco, the Team Leader noted, “to analyse the asset in its specifics and identify relations with the local area”.

Activities will take off in the Spring of 2023

The aim is to open in the Spring of 2023, with the objective to make the complex operational throughout the whole of the year. The social impact will be significant: at least 30% of the staff employed from time to time in running the Cesenatico facility will be people with cognitive, physical and mental disabilities hired under standard employment contracts; in addition, all disabled employees will be ensured at least two hundred hours of job training a year, designed to provide the tools needed for job placement and professional growth and to prepare them for future employment opportunities. But that is not all. At least 25% of the beds filled on an annual basis will be dedicated to furthering the right to travel of young children, the elderly and the disabled.

Albergo Etico’s team has already put itself to the test in competitive situations, showing that it is capable of combing inclusion and financial sustainability in places ranging from Asti to Bethlehem and from Argentina to Australia.

The Albergo Etico Cesenatico project has involved the whole of the local area, thanks to collaboration with institutions, associations, artists and schools.

In particular, a Focus Group has been formed together with the students of the Leonardo da Vinci Institute in Cesenatico with the aim of making students more aware of social inclusion and collecting ideas for the creation of a mural on one of the hotel’s outside walls together with a local artist: Virginia Verona. Students and teachers have also contributed to the setting up of a temporary exhibition on social inclusion in the hotel’s reception area.

In addition, the hotel has a multi-functional room which will be available to the city for cohesion, inclusion and shared well-being activities.

fondazione illimity’s mission

fondazione illimity was created to foster innovative projects involving the social regeneration of properties and impact investing. Through the development of an ecosystem of partnerships, the foundation is creating a virtuous circle of projects and initiatives with social impact.

“Generating value means being useful: fondazione illimity recognises the potential of properties for conversion to spaces of inclusion”, commented Corrado Passera, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of illimity.

And it is this spirit that the Albergo Etico Cesenatico has been created, a facility where, thanks to the regeneration of the property and the collaboration with Albergo Etico, the hotel will bring new value to the city.

“Hotels have always been a part of our social fabric”, stated the  Cesenatico councillor, Jacopo Agostini, “and in this project you can find inclusion, solidarity and social and professional integration”.