Cuffs on at Trump: Panamanian police on Tuesday handcuffed a security guard working at the Trump International Hotel and Tower Panama in the midst of a dispute during which the hotel’s majority owner has tried to fire the Trump Organization — and Trump employees have refused to leave. The guard was detained for denying officers access to hotel offices, according to two witnesses. It was unclear whether he had been formally arrested.
Aiming high: A Hyatt affiliate has entered into a management agreement with PNB Merdeka Ventures, an owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Berhad and Malaysia’s largest fund-management company, for the first Park Hyatt hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The high-end hotel will be a part of a city development, the PNB 118 tower. Anticipated to be completed in 2020, the tower is expected to be the tallest skyscraper in Southeast Asia and the third tallest in the world.
Making the right CrownBet: Canadian gambling giant The Stars Group will likely use its A$150 million (US$117 million) purchase of a 62% stake in corporate bookmaker CrownBet (from James Packer’s Crown Resorts) to push for online poker games to be legalized in Australia. The Canadian company and CrownBet could also soon shell out another A$200 million (US$156 million) if they are successful with a joint play for William Hill’s Australian operations, bids for which were lodged on Monday.
More from the Australian Financial Review
New Wynn allegations: The Associated Press on Tuesday obtained copies of police reports recently filed by two women about allegations dating to the 1970s, including one woman who told police she had a child with ousted casino mogul Steve Wynn after he raped her, with another reporting that she was forced to resign from a Las Vegas job after she refused to have sex with him.
Flâneur debuts: Real estate entrepreneur Alex Ohebshalom, vice president of Empire Management, has formed Flâneur Hospitality. The first project for the company, which will develop and operate, will be a 155-room luxury hotel scheduled to open in the fall of 2019 in New York City. Cosmic Realty Partners, in which Mr. Ohebshalom is a principal, owns the building. The company is also evaluating hotel development opportunities in markets including London, Los Angeles, Marrakesh, Miami, Paris and Tokyo.
Rezidor and Prizeotel: The Rezidor Hotel Group and Prizeotel have signed two new hotels in Vienna and Düsseldorf. Prizeotel Vienna-City marks the entry of an affordable high design brand into Austria. Prizeotel Düsseldorf-City will be part of a €500million (US$614 million) construction project called ‘Grand Central’, a new business district in Düsseldorf.
Whitbread in Germany: Whitbread, Britain’s biggest hotel and coffee shop operator has bought 19 hotels in Germany to expand its business beyond its base of Premier Inns in Britain. The purchase from Foremost Hospitality Group GmbH for an undisclosed sum will eventually give it a total of 31 hotels in 15 cities in Germany expected to be open by the end of 2020.
Jesse Upchurch dies: Former Virtuoso chairman Jesse Upchurch died Monday. Upchurch, 93, who co-founded Virtuoso in 1986 with his son, current Chairman and CEO Matthew D. Upchurch, had a career in travel that spanned more than 50 years. A founding member of World Wildlife Fund’s 1001 Club, Upchurch was an ardent supporter of conservation. In an effort to help protect the endangered Rothschild giraffes, he bought land in Kenya and donated it to the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife for what is now known as the grounds surrounding Giraffe Manor.
Everwood acquires in Florida: Everwood Hospitality Partners acquired the 263-suite Sheraton Suites Plantation in Broward County, Florida. The hotel was purchased for US$24.66 million from PHF Plantation, an affiliate of San Francisco-based Fillmore Capital Partners. Hospitality Ventures Management Group, an Atlanta-based, private hotel investment, ownership and management company, will operate.
China pipeline data: Analysts at Lodging Econometrics report that according to the recent China construction pipeline trend report, the total pipeline has 2,471 projects/548,628 rooms, up 6% by project year-over-year.
There are 1,743 projects/374,156 rooms under construction, up 4% by projects YOY. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months are at 365 projects/80,216 rooms, up 28% by project YOY, while projects in early planning at 363 projects/94,256 rooms are down 5%.
The top hotel companies in China’s pipeline are: Hilton Worldwide with 327 projects/77,270 rooms, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 281 projects/69,893 rooms and Marriott International with 268 projects/75,472 rooms. The largest brand in the Pipeline for each of the these companies are: Hilton’s Hampton Inn & Suites with 145 projects/22,412 rooms, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 124 projects/24,285 rooms and Marriott’s full-service hotel with 60 projects/18,671 rooms.