Hotel industry and travel news from around the Asia Pacific region: Singapore Investment Corp and APG jointly acquire major stake in The Student Hotel, Melbourne’s St Kilda Road Office to redeveloped for mix-use and more...

Surrey Hills Hotel in Sydney was Sold for AUD30 Million

Sydney’s Surrey Hills hotel was acquired by an onshore hotelier for approximately AUD30 million before opening its doors to customers, which translates to around AUD789,473 per key for the 38-key property. Located at 202-210 Elizabeth Street in Surrey Hills, the six-storey property comprises of two ground floor retail spaces, three outdoor terrace areas and a rooftop with views of the Sydney CBD area. This is Sydney’s first prefabricated timber hotel that was acquired by a local hotel operator. Sydney’s hotel occupancy and average rate has been improving in the past few months, and the sale was a testament to investors’ view of the strong long-term fundamentals of Sydney’s hotel market.

GIC and APG Jointly Acquire Major Stake in The Student Hotel 

Singapore-based sovereign wealth group Government of Singapore Investment Corp (“GIC”) and The Netherlands-based pension fund manager APG will jointly acquire a substantial stake in The Netherlands-based The Student Hotel (“TSG”) from Luxembourg-based Aermont Capital LLP in a deal that values TSG at EUR2.1 billion. TSG’s distinctive hybrid hospitality model which combines student accommodation, hotel rooms and co-working has been proven to be successful even during the pandemic time. TSG currently have more than 10,000 rooms open or under development. With GIC and APG’s commitments, it is expected TSH will be able to accelerate its growth strategy to expand into key European cities to 50 hotels from 25 hotels under ownership today.

Melbourne’s St Kilda Road Office to Redevelop into an AUD300 Million Hotel Mixed-use

Australia-based developer Orchard Piper and Australia-based Carter Group has planned to redevelop a six-storey office tower on Melbourne’s St Kilda Road into a AUD300 million hotel, spa and apartment building. The 2,400 square metres site will be transformed into a 17-storey mixed-use tower, completing in 2026. A 108-key five-star hotel and a spa facility will be housed on the lower ten floors, while above will be 55 upmarket apartments. A mezzanine restaurant and bar, and a street-level café will be also part of the mixed-use project. The motivation for a hotel-anchored project was the lack of short-stay accommodation on St Kilda Road. This hotel will join the 180-key Marriott Executive Apartments at 472 St Kilda Road, which is also due to open in 2026.

Major New Mixed-Use Centre, Parc 1 is Opened in Seoul

Parc 1 is a USD1.5 billion commercial complex development featuring the largest shopping centre in central Seoul, South Korea. Leonard Design Architects (“LDA”) have designed the project in conjunction with Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (“RSHP”) with local co-architects Samoo Architects, Engineers, and Siaplan Architects and Planners. The 630,000 square metres development consists of the largest shopping centre in Korea operated as The Hyundai Seoul, and two office towers that are 318m-tall and the other 246m-tall, which includes a luxury hotel Fairmont Ambassador Seoul. The development also has a sustainability programme through its new city-wide transportation integration. It includes column-free open-plan floor space to allow for efficient future changes, while embodied carbon in the buildings is minimised through an efficient composite mixture of steel and concrete structure.

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