UK hotel group Millennium & Copthorne announced on Friday the purchase of real estate in downtown Tokyo to build a new hotel by 2014.
This will be the group’s first property in Japan and marks the first major investment decision by the company’s new CEO Wong Hong Ren, who took over on Tuesday. The company is already in the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific region, operating hotels in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, New Zealand and Thailand.
A building on the Ginza district property will be demolished and a new 325-room hotel, which will include a restaurant and hotel, is set to open in 2014. The total investment for the property will be US$181 million (£113 million).
Company chairman Kwek Leng Beng told the press that Millennium & Copthorne had been seeking to expand into Japan since the mid-1990s.