A quick roundup of global hospitality news.
CDL TO ACQUIRE SOFITEL BRISBANE CENTRAL: City Developments Ltd. (CDL), through its fully-owned hotel subsidiary Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Ltd. (M&C) and in a 50:50 joint venture with its New Zealand-listed subsidiary Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand Ltd. have agreed to acquire the Sofitel Brisbane Central hotel in Australia. CDL will acquire the luxury, 416-key hotel from Brookfield Asset Management for AU$ 177.7 million (US$118.54 million). This will be CDL’s third hotel in Australia. The 30-story hotel has nine meeting and conference rooms that can accommodate up to 1,100 persons. The hotel will continue to be managed by the Accor Group under its Sofitel brand.
ROSEWOOD TO MANAGE LUXURY HOTEL IN SEOUL: Eleven D&C Co. Ltd., the Korea-based real estate developer, has appointed Rosewood Hotels & Resorts to manage Rosewood Seoul. The new-built, ultra-luxury hotel will open in Seoul in 2027. The hotel will include 250 rooms and suites, seven restaurants and bars, wellness facilities, 1,800 square meters of multi-purpose event space and a kids club. Located within the earlier site of Parkside Seoul, the mixed-use neighborhood will also house high-end retail and residences connected by outdoor spaces. The hotel’s architecture is led by the U.S.-based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, with interior design firm Space Copenhagen working on interiors.
KIMPTON TO LAUNCH IN SAUDI ARABIA: IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed a management agreement with The King Abdullah Financial District Management and Development Co. (KAFD DMC), a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) to introduce the Kimpton hotel in Saudi Arabia. The new 212-key Kimpton Riyadh will open in June 2024 and marks the first of IHG’s ongoing growth strategy in the country. Located in the heart of the LEED-certified, mixed-use financial district of KAFD in Riyadh, the luxury lifestyle hotel will feature five dining venues, an outdoor amphitheater terrace, a health club and an outdoor pool. The new Kimpton Riyadh will join Kimpton properties across the U.S., Scotland and France. IHG currently operates 37 hotels under five brands in Saudi Arabia, with 31 additional hotels in the development pipeline set to open within three to five years.
RADISSON, LA VIE STRENGTHEN PARTNERSHIP: Radisson Hotel Group and La Vie Hotels & Resorts have built upon their partnership by signing an agreement to add more than 30 hotels to Radisson’s portfolio in the next 10 years. The two companies have signed a master collaboration agreement, which will see Radisson becoming La Vie’s preferred partner, which will allow La Vie to manage, develop and operate properties under five brands — Radisson, Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Park Inn by Radisson and Country Inn & Suites by Radisson — under a non-exclusive brand license. This collaboration will help Radisson grow its portfolio in key global strategic growth markets. Radisson and La Vie first partnered in 2022 through the rebranding and conversion of three hotels in Sri Lanka.
COSTAR LAUNCHES STR BENCHMARKING: CoStar Group, the provider of online real estate marketplaces, information and analytics in residential and commercial property markets, has launched STR Benchmarking, a market share product for the international hotel industry. STR’s hotel data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights will be integrated into CoStar’s news platform. The first release of STR benchmarking is focused on property-level analytics and data for hotel owners and operators, with enhanced functionality built on the foundation of the STAR Report. Future product enhancements, slated to begin rolling out later this year, include portfolio-level benchmarking, monthly P&L, average-length-of-stay data, and forward-looking occupancy. STR was acquired by CoStar in 2019.