St Regis Singapore is expected to be built by 2007; it will be the 'poshest hotel' here and will have 30 suites among its nearly 300 rooms
By Alexis Hooi And Benjamin Ho
A NEW $780 million hotel expected to be built in Tanglin Road by 2007 aims to be Singapore's poshest.
Just up the road from the Tanglin Shopping Centre, the 299-room St Regis Singapore will be one of the area's largest developments in recent years, and the first major hotel since The Fullerton opened in December 2000.
The St Regis Singapore will be Singapore's most luxurious hotel, and targeted at the very well-heeled, said Mr Gerry de Silva, spokesman for Hong Leong, a partner in the project.
The development, three 20-storey towers on 180,000 sq ft of prime land, will include 170 apartments and 130 service apartments.
It nestles next to the 441-room Regent Singapore, close to the 546-room Traders Hotel in Cuscaden Road, at the start of the Orchard Road hotel belt.
Only the third hotel in Asia to bear the nearly century-old St Regis name, the newcomer will be just the 12th St Regis in the world. The flagship, on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, opened in 1904. The St Regis Singapore will boast 30 suites among its nearly 300 rooms, an unusually high suite-to-room ratio.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, which runs the Westin and Sheraton chains, as well as the trendy W hotels, manages the St Regis brand.
Single rooms in St Regis hotels start at US$655 (S$1,126) in New York and US$245 in Beijing, said Mr de Silva.
Singapore's St Regis will have a spa, four food and beverage outlets and retail shops. But no office space or major retail outlets are planned.
The project's partners, who all hold equal stakes, are:
City Developments, or CDL, which controls the London-listed corporation Millennium & Copthorne Hotels that owns The Plaza New York and the Seoul Hilton, among others;
Hong Leong Holdings, which like CDL is part of the Hong Leong Group headed by property and hotel magnate Kwek Leng Beng; and
Trade Industrial Development, or TID, a joint venture between Mitsui Fudosan and Hong Leong Holdings.
Work is due to start in the second half of next year. Construction is expected to cost up to $400 million. The announcement comes at a time when the hotel industry is still recovering from the business slump and the Sars outbreak that devastated it in April and May.
A Singapore Tourism Board spokesman said yesterday that the hotel sector was almost back to pre-Sars levels.
In September, the average occupancy was two percentage points lower than last year's average of 74 per cent. But rates averaged $112 that month, 11 to 12 per cent lower than the overall average last year.
Mr de Silva said: 'We're taking a long-term approach to the hospitality market and we're very bullish in Singapore. This will cater to the high-end market and there'll be a demand for it.'
Said Mr Tay Kah Poh, 46, research director at property consultancy Knight Frank: 'I don't see a glut now and the outlook is really quite positive. Mr Kwek Leng Beng has been looking for a flagship hotel and this might be it.'
By Alexis Hooi And Benjamin Ho
A NEW $780 million hotel expected to be built in Tanglin Road by 2007 aims to be Singapore's poshest.
Just up the road from the Tanglin Shopping Centre, the 299-room St Regis Singapore will be one of the area's largest developments in recent years, and the first major hotel since The Fullerton opened in December 2000.
The St Regis Singapore will be Singapore's most luxurious hotel, and targeted at the very well-heeled, said Mr Gerry de Silva, spokesman for Hong Leong, a partner in the project.
The development, three 20-storey towers on 180,000 sq ft of prime land, will include 170 apartments and 130 service apartments.
It nestles next to the 441-room Regent Singapore, close to the 546-room Traders Hotel in Cuscaden Road, at the start of the Orchard Road hotel belt.
Only the third hotel in Asia to bear the nearly century-old St Regis name, the newcomer will be just the 12th St Regis in the world. The flagship, on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, opened in 1904. The St Regis Singapore will boast 30 suites among its nearly 300 rooms, an unusually high suite-to-room ratio.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, which runs the Westin and Sheraton chains, as well as the trendy W hotels, manages the St Regis brand.
Single rooms in St Regis hotels start at US$655 (S$1,126) in New York and US$245 in Beijing, said Mr de Silva.
Singapore's St Regis will have a spa, four food and beverage outlets and retail shops. But no office space or major retail outlets are planned.
The project's partners, who all hold equal stakes, are:
City Developments, or CDL, which controls the London-listed corporation Millennium & Copthorne Hotels that owns The Plaza New York and the Seoul Hilton, among others;
Hong Leong Holdings, which like CDL is part of the Hong Leong Group headed by property and hotel magnate Kwek Leng Beng; and
Trade Industrial Development, or TID, a joint venture between Mitsui Fudosan and Hong Leong Holdings.
Work is due to start in the second half of next year. Construction is expected to cost up to $400 million. The announcement comes at a time when the hotel industry is still recovering from the business slump and the Sars outbreak that devastated it in April and May.
A Singapore Tourism Board spokesman said yesterday that the hotel sector was almost back to pre-Sars levels.
In September, the average occupancy was two percentage points lower than last year's average of 74 per cent. But rates averaged $112 that month, 11 to 12 per cent lower than the overall average last year.
Mr de Silva said: 'We're taking a long-term approach to the hospitality market and we're very bullish in Singapore. This will cater to the high-end market and there'll be a demand for it.'
Said Mr Tay Kah Poh, 46, research director at property consultancy Knight Frank: 'I don't see a glut now and the outlook is really quite positive. Mr Kwek Leng Beng has been looking for a flagship hotel and this might be it.'