A hotel project that sat unfinished for more than ten years has finally opened its doors. Manhattan Grand Hotel, a 162-room five-star property in Hulhumalé Phase 1, was inaugurated on 7 November 2026 by Finance Minister Hassan Zareer, closing the chapter on the long-stalled STO City Hotel scheme first approved back in 2006.
The backstory is almost as interesting as the hotel itself. The State Trading Organisation originally planned a 250-room city hotel to bring foreign currency into the country, with construction starting in 2011 under plans involving US-based Carlson Hotel Group. Repeated delays left the shell standing empty for over a decade until a 2025 agreement with the Housing Development Corporation, backed by UAE investment from Deep Seafood Company, got it finished. Operation now sits with World of Business Pvt Ltd.
For travellers, the pitch is simple: it's roughly ten minutes from Velana International Airport, which makes it a genuinely useful option for transit passengers, late arrivals, early departures and anyone who wants a city base before or after a resort stay — historically a gap in Maldivian hospitality, which has long focused on overwater escapes far from Malé.
The rooms come in eight categories, from city-view and sea-view rooms to junior suites. There are four food and beverage outlets, an outdoor pool, a spa and a fitness centre. The real headline, though, is the events space: three halls of roughly 700, 400 and 390 square metres, plus dedicated meeting rooms, positioning the hotel as the biggest new MICE venue in the Greater Malé area for conferences, exhibitions, AGMs and large weddings.
Design-wise, the property leans on local heritage rather than generic international styling. Its concept, 'Live the Heritage', borrows from Hukuru Miskiy, Malé's historic Friday Mosque, weaving traditional Maldivian craftsmanship into a contemporary urban building. About three and a half floors are also set aside for public facilities including a media village, youth centre, heritage college and medical college.
The hotel has already been tested at scale: it hosted the Food & Hospitality Asia Maldives trade show in September 2026, pulling in suppliers and exhibitors from across the region.
Why should a holidaymaker care? Because Maldives trips often involve awkward flight timings and overnight stays near the airport, and options in Hulhumalé have been limited compared with the airport's own bubble of transit hotels. A full-scale five-star property with pools, dining and serious conference facilities adds real choice — and a chance to see the planned, increasingly lively city that Hulhumalé has become, rather than just passing through it.
Story via Maldives Insider.
