Starwood Hotels in deal with Singapore real estate group

HOTEL operator Starwood Hotels & Resorts has struck a deal with Singapore-listed real estate group Hiap Hoe to run two hotels at luxury properties it is developing in Melbourne that are worth $700 million.

The pair have struck a deal under which the group’s planned hotel in the Docklands will be run as a Four Points and the hotel component of a project in Lonsdale Street will be run under the Aloft brand.

At Pearl River Road in the Docklands, the Singaporean developer is planning a 17-storey tower with more than 300 rooms and two residential towers, which will together contain 425 apartments.

The company has also set its sights on a hotel development at the Lonsdale Street site, where it intends to build a 350-room hotel and 658 apartments.

CBRE advised Hiap Hoe on selecting a hotelier and agency director Mark Wizel noted the continuing demand for development sites from Asian buyers. He said Hiap Hoe was a proven developer abroad and its bold entry into the Melbourne development market would be rewarded.

Singapore and Malaysian developers dominated land acquisitions in the Melbourne CBD last year, with many new entrants purchasing their first sites for development projects.

CBRE estimated developers from the two counties made up 69 per cent of international transactions in the city last year and Chinese developers accounted for the balance, as properties worth just over $688m changed hands.

Striking the deal steps up Starwood’s presence in Melbourne, where it is set to open a Sheraton in late March, marking the return of its iconic brand after nine years. That hotel in Collins Street is in a 31-storey building and will have 174 rooms.

Starwood declined to comment about the Hiap Hoe deal but it would be the first Aloft hotel in Australia.

The hotelier has also been linked to a plan by developer Jinshan Investments to construct a 30-storey W Hotel in Bourke Street on the site of the Palace Theatre.

Source:  The Australian - 14 January 2014