International hospitality firm Entourage Group hopes to speed up Hamburg’s emergence as a serious leisure and hospitality destination with the opening of a new luxury boutique hotel inside a 19th century warehouse on the city’s waterfront.

Opening later this year, the 94-room Sir Nikolai has been designed by Dutch practice FG Stijl as a “showcase for artisanal quality and tradition” – with curated art, vintage rugs, unrefined wood and polished marble featuring throughout.

The warehouse courtyard has become the glass-covered heart of the hotel, covered by a terrazzo floor and illuminated by a large Bohemian chandelier. Called The Patio, a fully retractable ceiling has been installed to blur the boundaries between the hotel’s interior and exterior spaces. The area is occupied by a new Japanese Peruvian restaurant called IZAKAYA Asian kitchen & bar.

The hotel’s guest rooms and side terraces look out at the café-lined waterways of the Nikolaifleet canal and the Altstadt Old Town beyond; home to Hamburg’s five main churches, town hall, senate building and parliament.

Other amenities include a 300sq m (3,300sq ft) subterranean spa, with three treatment rooms, a steam room, a gym and a pool and sauna overlooking the canal.

The ambition of Entourage Group is to blend local heritage and international sophistication to take advantage of both Hamburg's history and its recent developments, such as the major HafenCity urban regeneration project to the south and Herzog and de Meuron's Elbphilharmonie concert hall.

Sir Nikolai is part of the Sir Hotel brand, which was founded in Amsterdam in 2013 with the opening of Sir Albert, located in a former diamond factory next to the city’s Museum Square. A second Amsterdam property followed, as well as one in Berlin. Next month the brand will be launched in Ibiza with Sir Joan.

Each hotel curates and combines historical buildings, design-led interiors and cultural programming rooted in the local community. The concept was created by development and management company Europe Hotels Private Collection, and the brand is represented by the Design Hotels group.