Gostelow Report, July 2006

By Mary Gostelow, Contributing Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 7/1/2006

Send your news via e-mail to Mary Gostelow, Contributing Editor

Auberge Resorts, Mill Valley, California, has announced its second brand, Solage, to be led by CEO Tim Harmon. But Auberge also will continue to grow, says Managing Director George Goeggel, who is thought to be working on something in St. Kitts in partnership with a major Hong Kong-based group.

Rome-based Gruppo Imprese La Ficara (GILAF), a family-held construction group, has purchased the Franklin Hotel in London with the intention of creating a group of intimate lifestyle hotels in key European cities. The Franklin will be managed by Paragon International.

Ian and Christa Taylor, owners and general managers of Cotswold House in Chipping Campden, England, are looking for similar historic properties to develop (they already are working on the university city of Cambridge and something in Northern Ireland). Their partner is Halifax Bank of Scotland HBOS.

Hotel and Leisure Investments Pty Ltd. is a new Durban-based joint venture between Three Cities Group—which already has 40 properties in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe—and Tourism Asset Management, whose CEO Mark Martinovic was once F&B manager of Sun City. Hotel and Leisure Investments is working on 11 developments throughout southern Africa, and it is looking for more.

Perm—formerly Molotov—is the most eastern city in Europe, and third largest in Russia. By default of acquiring assets of bankrupt companies, three entrepreneurs, Alexander Aspidov, Valery Garayev and Dmitry Zlatkin, have amassed a portfolio of 13 hotels with 1,700 rooms built in Soviet style in the 1970s. They have now formed Amaks Grand Hotels and are looking for management contracts and franchises throughout eastern Europe. They will, they say, continue at the budget level with an average daily rate of around US$50.

Kwek Leng Beng, Singapore-based executive chairman of City Development Ltd. and its parent, the Hong Leong Group, has his eye on Thailand, where his local advisor is MR Chatumongol Sonakul, formerly governor of the Bank of Thailand and now chairman of Krungthep Rimnam Ltd., Bangkok. Krungthep Rimnam took over what was originally going to be the 32-floor Sofitel Riverside, Bangkok, and it has now opened as the 542-room Millennium Hilton. Yes, Thailand is a good long-term investment destination, says Kwek, who is currently working on more Millennium hotels, including a Bangkok Sukhumvit hotel and residences. There also will be a 400-room hotel in a mixed-use development at Phuket Jungceylon.

Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, Singapore, is expanding fast, both geographically and in product. It recently opened Lijiang in China’s Yunnan province, and it has planned openings in Bali (Angsana brand), Barbados, the Maldives and Ras al Khaimah in the UAE. Also in the Emirates, in Abu Dhabi, it will manage what CEO Ho Kwon Ping calls a tropical garden spa, the Banyan Tree Resort and Spa at Al Gurm Marine Reserve. In Bangkok and Dubai (Angsana) it makes its entry into the residences sector. In all, Ho plans 19 additional resorts by 2008, with special focus on China and the Middle East.

Donald Duke, governor of Cross River State, Nigeria—and touted as a future president of that country—is determined to make his Tinapa Business Development project in Calabar Africa’s answer to Dubai. Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar, will, courtesy the World Bank, be linked to the development by a 9½-mile monorail. The development will include huge retail and entertainment centers as well as a 290-key hotel.

Across the African continent, the Government of Uganda is building a luxury 5-star property on the site of the former headquarters of Uganda Broadcasting Corporation in Kampala. Helped by the investment of a Sudanese tycoon, Mohammed Ava, the building should be completed in time for the Commonwealth Summit, November 2007.