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Briefs: Nobu adding in D.R., Orlando; IHG signs resort in Malaysia

Nobu, RCD Hotels announce 2 projects: Nobu Hospitality in partnership with RCD Hotels, Cancun, Mexico, has announced two new hotels and residences in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and Orlando, Florida. These two properties will mark the fifth collaboration between Nobu and RCD, which started in 2016 with the launch of Nobu Hotel Miami Beach. The 200-room Nobu Hotel Punta Cana is slated to open in 2025 and will include 12 villas, a signature Nobu restaurant, meeting spaces and 50 residences. Expected to open in 2025, the Nobu Hotel Orlando will feature 300 rooms, including eight villas, a restaurant, 50 residences and event space.

Rendering of InterContinental Penang Resort in Penang, Malaysia

Conrad Nashville completed, sold: Propst Development, Huntsville, Alabama, and Chartwell Hospitality, Franklin, Tennessee, have finalized the development of Hilton’s Conrad Nashville hotel. The hotel is expected to open on June 29 and features over 11,000 square feet of meeting space, a third level outdoor terrace pool and dining venues. The co-developers have additionally closed the sale of the 234-key hotel to New York City-based Northwood Investors. The hotel is part of a US$540 million mixed-use project being developed by Propst Development. The project comprises 630,000 square feet of office space, 196 luxury condominiums, besides the Conrad Hotel.

IHG signs resort in Malaysia: IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed the 355-key InterContinental Penang Resort in Penang, Malaysia, in partnership with THR Hotel (Penang) Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Tradewinds Corp. Berhad. The former Penang Mutiara Beach Resort at Teluk Bahang will convert into an IHG-branded luxury beach resort and re-open in 2025. The resort will feature rooms and suites up to three bedrooms, and a private enclave of six villas along with a wellness village. This will be the second InterContinental property in Malaysia, after the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur. IHG also has another upcoming property in Malaysia — Holiday Inn & Suites Penang Prai. The group currently has six hotels across three brands in Malaysia and has a pipeline of 10 properties which will open in the next three to five years.

RREAF, Innisfree acquire 2 in Florida: RREAF Holdings, Dallas Texas, and Innisfree Hotels, Gulf Breeze, Florida, have acquired two boutique hotels — Ocean Coast Hotel and Amelia Hotel on Fernandina Beach in Amelia Island, Florida. The two-hotel portfolio, to be managed by Innisfree, totals 225 keys and sit adjacent to each other. RREAF currently has two beachfront resorts under development, which will add 550 additional rooms to its beachfront hospitality and resort division.

Wink Hotels grows in Vietnam: Wink Hotels, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, announced it is opening two new hotels in Vietnam’s coastal city of Danang. The openings are a part of the company’s plan to grow to 20 hotels in Vietnam in the next five to seven years. The 244-room Wink Hotel Danang Centre will open this November and will include a sky lobby on the 19th floor, 30 family rooms and a one-bedroom apartment. The Wink Hotel Danang Riverside, which is slated to open in early 2023, features 287 rooms and 70 suites with a lobby on the fifth floor facing the Han River. Both the hotels were designed by Paris-based AW2. Wink, which opened its first hotel in Ho Chi Minh City in March 2021, currently has 13 hotels in the construction stage. It is the first product of Indochina-Kajima, a joint venture between Indochina Capital Corp., Hanoi, Vietnam, and Kajima Corp, Tokyo, Japan.

Rebrand of Kitano in New York: Seibu Prince Hotels Worldwide, the Tokyo, Japan-based affiliate of Seibu Holdings, is going to rebrand and operate the Kintano hotel in New York City as the Prince Kitano New York from spring 2023. Seibu Prince has signed a trustee agreement with the U.S. unit of Kitano Godo Tatemono Inc., the owner of the Japanese luxury hotel, which opened in 1973, and is known for its rooftop bar and panoramic view of Manhattan.

Macau hotel locked after COVID outbreak: Fortuna, the satellite casino resort and hotel under the umbrella of SJM Holdings in Macau, was locked by authorities with 700 people inside after an outbreak of COVID-19 was reported on the property, the local media reported. Media channels showed police personnel in protective gear sealing the campus to stop people from leaving or entering. The government is believed to be preparing COVID-19 detection tests for the people stranded inside. This comes as the Chinese special administrative region conducts a two-day mass testing of its over 600,000 population after several cases of locally transmitted COVID cases were detected over last weekend. There hasn’t been any large-scale lockdowns or quarantines in the city after the last outbreak in October 2021.

HFTP, AAHOA partner: Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) have partnered with an allied agreement, connecting the groups, promoting collaboration and knowledge-sharing between the two. The partnership will also see the associations working on projects that will benefit both organizations’ members, besides sharing resources for young professionals. Young professional members of the AAHOA can avail a complimentary one-year HFTP membership.

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