Gostelow Report, March 2007

By Mary Gostelow, Contributing Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 3/1/2007

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

JMJ Hospitality, led by Timothy Barton and Christopher Knable in New York City, wants to acquire and develop luxury hotels and resorts. Its first project, a joint venture with OHL Group, Madrid, will open in Mayakoba, Mexico, managed by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, Dallas. Now JMJ is looking elsewhere in Mexico, Brazil, the Caribbean, the Hudson Valley in New York, as well as Turkey and the UAE.

Panama City-based Herman Bern, president of Empresa Bern, via its Bern Hotels & Resorts, has developed two InterContinentals and one Crowne Plaza in Panama, and now has announced a forthcoming Holiday Inn Panama Canal. A unique component of the new construction project is the integration of what will be known as the Panama International Hotel School. Will this set a trend and give developers elsewhere a competitive edge if there is a hotel school attached?

In a move that indicates either that senior management does not want to fly far, or the company is mainly interested in the outbound Austrian market, Vienna International is looking for projects within three hours’ flight time of Vienna. Headed by CEO Rudolf Tucek, who says he definitely wants to enter the Italian market, and perhaps buy a second property in France, Vienna International also is keen to expand in Eastern Europe, where it already has presence in Croatia, the Czech Republic and Poland. As well as mainstream hotels, Tucek is looking for more sites for its younger-image Cube Hotels, which are becoming popular as incentive venues.

Singapore has seen many innovative hotel concepts in the past, including the revitalization of Raffles, the conversion of its former post office to the Fullerton and the building of a giant, 32-floor structure on what seems like giant legs, the Ritz-Carlton Millenia. Now the Hong Kong-based company Sino Land, via the Far East Organization, Singapore, has won the right to develop Collyer Quay, the former island’s inter-ferry terminal directly across the street from the Fullerton. Executive Director Daryl Ng, son of Chairman Robert Ng Chee Siong, has in mind a boutique hotel with floating pods that can be used as function rooms.

Another iconic name in the luxury hotel world is ‘E&O,’ which stands for the Eastern & Oriental hotels, developed as neighbors in Penang, Malaysia, in 1884 and 1885 and later combined. The brand and flagship hotel are owned by Kuala Lumpur-based developer Terry Tham, who is keen to see more E&Os. He is converting a former royal residence in Kuala Lumpur and is talking about residences. Would he also like to get his hands on the Eastern & Oriental (E&O train), which runs from Singapore to Bangkok via Butterworth, where it stops for passengers to visit Penang? The train is managed by Orient-Express Hotels, Resorts & Trains, London, but its majority shareholder is YTL, Kuala Lumpur, whose enormous global portfolio includes the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in that city and Pangkor Laut, and Tanjong Jara resorts elsewhere in Malaysia.

Vietnam is hot on most brand developers’ lists. General Hotel Management Ltd., Singapore, led the way on stressing the central South China Sea coastal area with The Nam Hai, which opened in December on Ha Mai Beach near Hoi An. A few miles away, Da Nang will have at least two new developments. Kingdom Hotels Investments, Dubai, has signed a 150-room resort to be managed by Raffles, and now Vietnam’s own Hoangdat Silver Shores Exceptional International Entertainment Joint Venture Co., led by Director General Hoang Hai, has signed a 500-room Crowne Plaza. Da Nang has an efficient airport that serves four international airlines, averaging about 125 flights every 24 hours. So which hotel development will be next?