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• Sep 18 2015 at 4:30 PM 
   
  
  
•  Updated Sep 18 2015 at 5:56 PM 
  

The new Old Clare Hotel swans in

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[img=620x0]http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/j/p/x/5/a/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gjproj.png/1442562998120.jpg[/img]The Old Clare Hotel reopens chris court
[Image: 1425598457909.png]

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by Su-Lin Tan
The student haunt that was the Old Clare Pub in Sydney's Chippendale is no more and its place a dazzling heritage design hotel, created by Singapore hotelier, Loh Lik Peng who is making his first foray into Australia.   
The once no-ladies pub which later became the watering hole for the University of Technology Sydney across the road re-opened on Friday with with 62 designer rooms and 7 suites with high ceilings, heritage timber panelling and original exposed walls. 
The C.U.B. suite features an anteroom with library. The Mary O' Suite, named after Chippendale character, Mary O'Shea, has a separate entertaining area and a wet bar. 
"Sydney is a fantastic lifestyle destination and, for me, getting the opportunity to do something there with a building as charming and full of history as the Clare and the CUB was a chance too good to miss," he said. 
[img=620x0]http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/j/p/x/3/a/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1442552452620.jpg[/img]The Old Clare Hotel reopens chris court
"I have tried to do something that is respectful of the building's history and its local and hopefully of a quality that will stand the test of time."
He will add the property, built on the site of the pub and the Carlton & United Breweries Administration Building, to his international hotel portfolio, the Unlisted Collection:, which now owns design-led boutique hotels and restaurants including London's Town Hall Hotel, Shanghai's The Waterhouse at South Bund and Singapore's Wanderlust. 
Mr Loh first set eyes on the site in 2011 when his family friend and Frasers Property Australia chairman, Dr Stanley Quek, who built the Central Park project next door, tipped him on the site. 
It was "love at first sight" for the man known for turning run-down buildings into luxury hotels. 


He received Singapore's "New Tourism Entrepreneur Award" for turning a local red-light district property into the boutique Hotel 1929 - his first project.
The Ireland-born former lawyer has since partnered with one of the biggest names in hospitality, Michelin-starred British chef Jason Atherton who is also launching one of the three restaurants at The Old Clare, the Kensington Street Social. 

Reef Casino Trust’s Cairns casino profits surge

• THE AUSTRALIAN
  
• SEPTEMBER 28, 2015 12:00AM
  

Michael McKenna
[Image: michael_mckenna.png]
Reporter
Brisbane

[Image: 343102-1390c92e-64e6-11e5-ae2c-91350e74fa5b.jpg]
Reef Casino Trust has reported a 47.5 per cent jump in its half-year profit to June. Source: Supplied
[b]One of the smallest players in Australia’s gaming industry, Reef Casino Trust, has hit a winning streak with a surge in profits from its hotel and casino in Cairns.[/b]
After a failed takeover attempt by Hong Kong businessman Tony Fung last year, the trust has reported a 47.5 per cent jump in its half-year profit to June — compared to the same period last year — of $6.4 million.
The single-purpose trust, which owns the Reef Hotel and Casino in the north Queensland tourist town, posted the profits on the back of a jump in gaming and hotel revenues and a 5.9 per cent cut in operating expenses.
With international tourism numbers rising this year as the value of the Australian dollar slumped, the Cairns tourism industry has begun to recover, although the regional economy remains flat.
The surge in the trust’s profits follows the introduction of a loyalty program, new gaming machines and promotions to lure high rollers with the recently added direct flight service on SilkAir from Singapore.
In his half-yearly review, Reef Casino Trust chairman Ben McDonald said the trust was in a strong position as the casino and hotel moves into the “high tourist season’’ in Cairns. The Reef Hotel and Casino is the only casino in Cairns.
Mr MacDonald reported that overall casino revenues were up 7.7 per cent in the first half of the year, with electronic gaming revenues rising 4.4 per cent and table gaming revenues jumping 15.8 per cent.
Some of this revenue growth on the tables came from the growing Chinese tourism market, particularly a “strong Chinese New Year holiday season’’.
Hotel revenues were also up by 5.8 per cent, with both occupancy and average rate per room higher than the same period last year.
“Overall, the outlook for the second half (of 2015) is positive for Cairns’ biggest entertainment complex,’’ Mr MacDonald said in his report.
“We will continue to leverage off the good momentum in electronic gaming.
“Underpinning revenue growth includes a new tiered membership loyalty program, a full schedule of promotions and entertainment and the introduction of new gaming machines and games on the casino floor.
“Our VIP gaming team has reactivated efforts to market our casino to players in Singapore and Southeast Asia to leverage off the new direct flight service from Singapore to Cairns on SilkAir which started in May.
“Cairns remains a very popular destination with Chinese tourists,” he said.
“Much will depend on the Chinese economy.
“However, the recent anti-­corruption crackdown in China is not expected to affect our operations in a major way.
“The lower Australian dollar should attract more overseas visitors to Cairns.’’
Mr Fung last year abandoned his takeover of the casino and hotel after failing to meet the deadline for state government regulatory approvals.
The billionaire had wanted to use the casino licence as part of his now-stalled plans to build a $8.5 billion resort casino north of Cairns.

NSW Government to sell off luxury hotels in Sydney to fund projects
By state political reporter Sarah Gerathy

The New South Wales Government has announced it will fund an upgrade of Sydney's Circular Quay by selling off several sites, including luxury hotels. 

The Shangri-La and Four Seasons hotels in the city's CBD, the Novotel and Mercure hotels at Darling Harbour, and commercial offices at Darling Quarter are among the properties owned by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA) that will be put on the market.

The Government said it would raise $200 million to fund the construction of new state-of-the-art ferry wharves, with construction expected to begin in 2019.

Premier Mike Baird said the Government did not need to be the landlord for luxury hotels and the money raised would be put to good use. 

"For those of us that looked at the wharves for a long time, we know that they're functional but we think they can do much, much more." Mr Baird said.

"They can provide the sort of gateway you see in global cities around the world that's attractive, that's inviting, that's vibrant."

The Government's vision for the wharves included double-storey buildings with new retail facilities.

Finance Minister Dominic Perrottet said the SHFA assets were deemed to be not of long-term strategic importance.

"There is absolutely no reason in the 21st century why the NSW Government needs to be the landlord for these luxury hotels," Mr Perrottet said.

However, Mr Perrottet refused to reveal how much ongoing revenue the state would be foregoing from lost rent. 

"Some of those assets obviously bring on revenue, but we will make sure that the assets that are divested make economic sense and importantly are invested into productive infrastructure" he said.

"This is about making better use of our assets. You can't have our assets locked up and build the infrastructure of the 21st century."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-28/ns...de/6809564
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Planning red tape ‘hurting hotel projects’

• THE AUSTRALIAN
  
• OCTOBER 02, 2015 12:00AM
  

Lisa Allen
[Image: lisa_allen.png]
Property & Tourism Reporter
Sydney

[Image: 899210-d7b150c4-67f4-11e5-a694-a01135d43b99.jpg]
Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb says hotel developers are hampered by complex planning regulations.. Source: AAP
[b]Complex planning regulations are creating significant delays and extra costs for hotel developers at a time when Asian and Middle Eastern money is clamouring to invest in the $110 billion hospitality sector, according to a report commissioned by Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb.[/b]
The Urbis report, Hotel Development Regulations in ­Australia, released today, recommends federal, state, and local governments work together to improve planning and environmental approval processes.
The federal government says it needs 80 new five and six-star hotels developed over the next five years to cope with demand from international tourists and to compete with Southeast Asian countries also vying for international tourist dollars.
But developers such as Singapore’s Loh Lik Peng and Australia’s James Baillie have decried the complex red tape required by bureaucrats to win planning approval.
Mr Baillie pulled out of developing a $1000-a-night boutique hotel in Sydney’s The Rocks because of planning complexity and expense while Mr Peng, who developed the Old Clare Hotel in Sydney’s Broadway, has lamented the difficulty in converting an old pub into a luxurious hotel because of the complex government reports required. He said it was easier to develop in Singapore and London.
Federal government data shows it takes an average of up to 35 weeks in Australia to progress planning approvals; in Sydney, it takes 51 weeks to obtain a one- stage approval and 87 weeks to get a two-stage approval.
The Urbis report found developer contributions for a four-star CBD hotel project were $1 million in Sydney and nearly $3m in Brisbane. “Regulatory costs are highest in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra ... regulatory costs applying to Melbourne hotel developments are appreciably lower than other large capital cities,” Urbis said.
“The Australian, state and territory governments have been successful in attracting a healthy pipeline of hotel investment commitments in our capital cities. Now it is time for us to deliver on that pipeline,” Mr Robb said.
He said new hotel developments were vital to Australia’s surging tourism sector but developers were being hampered by overly complex planning regulations causing significant delays.
The sector was crucial to jobs and growth and it was important to seize new investment opportunities to boost the quality and supply of hotel rooms.
The report finds overly complex planning regulations cause significant delays and uncertainty for hotel developments, and recommends that federal, state, territory and local governments work together to promote simplicity, transparency and predictability in all state and territory jurisdictions.
Federal Tourism Minister Richard Colbeck said tourism was one of our major growth sectors, with international visitor arrivals reaching a record 7 million in the year to March. “We need new hotels to accommodate an ever increasing number of visitors but too often such developments are slowed by unnecessary red tape,” he said.
The Urbis recommendations to speed up planning approvals and cut costs include providing better guidance information for new and international investors, adopting a flexible approach to design requirements, making “fast-tracked” development application processes available for low-risk projects and putting greater emphasis on pre-­approval engagement and case management.

• Oct 2 2015 at 4:26 PM 
   
  

Interstate football fans a blessing for Sydney and Melbourne hotels

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NaN of
[img=620x0]http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/j/z/z/z/j/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gjzsuw.png/1443770711521.jpg[/img]The Mantra Hotel in Jolimont will be packed with football fans this weekend. Pat Scala
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by Larry Schlesinger
Mantra on Jolimont hotel manager Nathan Copsey will be barracking loudly for the West Coast Eagles in Saturday's AFL grand final, not just because he's sick of seeing Hawthorn holding aloft the Premiership Cup, but because an interstate team in the final means a massive spike in room rates.
 "We normally charge $150 to $300 a night, but this weekend it's two and three times that rate," he told the Weekend AFR.
The four-star hotel, a two-minute walk from the Melbourne Cricket Ground, has  133 rooms and all have been taken by football fans – more than 70 per cent from Perth.
"We're always full grand final weekend, but if it's two Melbourne teams competing we won't get the same bump up in rates – it's a pure function of supply and demand," Mr Copsey said.

It is a similar story for hotel owners and operators in Melbourne and in Sydney, where two interstate teams, the Brisbane Broncos and Townsville Cowboys, will battle it out for the NRL premiership on Sunday night, bringing with them hordes of travelling Queensland fans.
There is also demand for hotel rooms from families enjoying the last of the school holidays and because it's a long weekend in NSW and Victoria, adding gloss to what has already been a bumper year for Melbourne and Sydney hoteliers with the lower dollar, rising domestic and international visitor numbers and a packed calendar of events driving up hotel room rates occupancies,  a Savills report shows.
Accor, Australia's biggest accommodation operator, is on track for nearly 100 per cent occupancy in its more than 30 Sydney central business district hotels this weekend, while its hotels in Melbourne are almost 90 per cent full.
"Both the AFL and NRL grand finals are always a major feature on the events calendar, with our hotels reporting strong occupancy across the board," Accor Asia Pacific boss Simon McGrath said.


The listed Mantra Group had almost filled all 1080 rooms in its seven Melbourne hotels by the start of the weekend. 
"This long weekend is shaping up to be the strongest grand final weekend in Melbourne in many years," Mantra Group director of revenue Luke Moran said.
Mantra is forecasting revenue per available room  increases  of more than 20 per cent  in  its Melbourne hotels over the long weekend and double-digit increases in Sydney and Parramatta.
And it is not just about hotel rooms. At the Mantra on Jolimont they're stocking the hotel bar with beer mugs in the shape of Premiership Cups.

"This weekend is also our biggest food and beverage weekend of the year. We've even added a second bar," Mr Copsey said.

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(04-10-2015, 09:19 PM)CityFarmer Wrote: [ -> ]I have removed several inappropriate posts here. The moderation action is in progress.

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I have accepted the apology for the postings, which are due to mistakes. I chose to believe it, with her track record. A reminder will be issued.

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Ritz-Carlton on the prowl for Sydney hotel site

• THE AUSTRALIAN
  
• OCTOBER 08, 2015 12:00AM
  

Sarah-Jane Tasker
[Image: sarah_jane_tasker.png]
Reporter
Sydney

[Image: 109985-b7d4cb52-6cd4-11e5-8559-5a0017f2887b.jpg]
Hotel operator Ritz-Carlton is actively looking for a Sydney site. Source: Supplied
[b]The Asian tourism boom, with a surge in the number of visitors to Australia, is driving luxury hotel operator Ritz-Carlton to expand here, as it actively looks for a Sydney site.[/b]
But Paul Foskey, Ritz-Carlton’s executive vice-president of hotel development for Asia Pacific, warned Australia was a challenging market.
“I’m aware the market is quite difficult in terms of building new buildings in certain areas and it can be a long and bureaucratic process,” he said. “It’s not easy and when you combine that with the cost of building. It’s a challenging market.”
A report released last week, said complex planning regulations were creating delays and extra costs for hotel developers.
The Ubris report, Hotel Development Regulations in Australia, commissioned by Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb, recommended that federal, state and local governments work together to improve planning and environmental approval processes.
The federal government says 80 new five- and six-star hotels need to be developed over the next five years to cope with demand from international tourists and to compete with Southeast Asian countries vying for international tourist dollars.
Mr Foskey said hardly any luxury hotels had been built in Australia in the past 20 years. “The last international luxury hotel to open was the Park Hyatt in Melbourne in 1998,” he said.
“Over the past couple of years the market has been shifting in that you have seen an influx of capital from other areas of Asia looking to invest in the market and a dramatic increase in visitation from Asia. These two things have sparked the necessity for luxury hotels in the (Australian) market.”
Mr Foskey said Sydney was a “key market” and his company was very keen on the major tourist city.
The reporter travelled to Hong Kong as a guest of Echo Entertainment.

Jerry Schwartz to add 38 rooms to Rydges Sydney Central Hotel

• THE AUSTRALIAN
  
• OCTOBER 10, 2015 12:00AM
  

Lisa Allen
[Image: lisa_allen.png]
Property & Tourism Reporter
Sydney

[Image: 916635-2793657a-6e3d-11e5-8cb9-949f91ef4ac5.jpg]
Jerry Schwartz will add two levels to his Rydges Sydney Central Hotel. Picture:<span class="creditattribution"> John Appleyard.</span> Source: News Corp Australia
[b]Billionaire hotelier Jerry Schwartz will bulk up the rooms available at his Rydges Sydney Central Hotel after recalculating its floor space ratio.[/b]
Dr Schwartz will add an extra two levels to the hotel in Surry Hills’ Albion Street, encompassing a further 38 rooms after recalculating the floor space ratios.
“The extension to the Rydges Sydney Central is a very clever use of unused space, which will make the construction cost effective and cause relatively low disruption,” he said.
“New constructions in Sydney are relatively difficult because of the cost of land, and Sydney is crying out for new rooms. Our architects were able to identify space on top of the existing low-rise part of the hotel, and by using lightweight construction, guests in the rest of the hotel will barely know that 38 rooms are actually being built.”
The redevelopment is expected to start next April, with completion scheduled for the end of 2016 at a cost of up to $4 million.
The extension of the hotel, which has 271 rooms, follows 15 per cent revenue per available room (REVPAR) growth over the past nine months. Average occupancy for 2015 is expected to average 93 per cent, up from 84 per cent two years ago when the hotel was rebranded.
The REVPAR growth mirrors the average growth rate across the Schwartz hotel portfolio in Sydney, with the company’s five hotels achieving record performances this year.
However, Dr Schwartz said it would be hard to sustain occupancy levels at current levels with so much new supply scheduled to come on to the market, with the addition of the International Convention Centre, which he is buying from Lend Lease.
“We see Sydney’s hotel market remaining very strong for many years to come,” Dr Schwartz said.
“(Room) rates have increased in Sydney over recent years, but then so has the quality of hotel ­facilities and standards.”

Hong Kong titans betting on Australian tourism boom

• THE AUSTRALIAN
  
• OCTOBER 10, 2015 12:00AM
  

Sarah-Jane Tasker
[Image: sarah_jane_tasker.png]
Reporter
Sydney

[Image: 941152-45810158-6e62-11e5-8cb9-949f91ef4ac5.jpg]
Hong Kong investors are betting on a boom in visitor expenditure in Australia. Source: TheAustralian

[b]The brakes have been put on ­Australia’s mining boom as China’s powerhouse economy slows but two of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families are betting big on a tourism boom generating the next economic wave to hit Australian shores.[/b]
Asian giants Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium are “bullish” on Australia’s economic prospects, which they say drove their decision to partner with Echo Entertainment to develop the $3 billion Queens Wharf ­project in Brisbane.
Chris Hoong, managing director of Far East Consortium, one of Asia’s largest property developers, says Australia can’t just rely on mining anymore, adding that it must diversify out of that sector. He believes that one industry where Australia has potential and competitive strengths is tourism.
The tourism boom, as with the last mining boom, will be led by China as the rise of its middle class drives a rapid increase in Chinese people travelling abroad.
“We have first-hand experience in Hong Kong (of the China impact). When China opened its door allowing its citizens to travel overseas Hong Kong was a big beneficiary and we have seen tremendous growth and we know the potential of that market,” Mr Hoong says.
“When we look at Australia, we feel that looking at (tourism) numbers, it is a very exciting ­market.”
By 2020 outbound Chinese tourist numbers will reach 200 million, double the 100 million who left China in 2013, and tourist spend is set to triple. Australia is already benefiting from an ­increase in Asian holiday-makers and Chinese and Hong Kong tourists are on track to become Australia’s top tourist group in less than a year, surpassing New Zealand. A record 953,200 Chinese tourists visited Australia in the year to August, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, closing in on New Zealand’s 1.29 million.
While Australia is geographically well placed to attract Asian tourists, the issue of capacity could limit the potential upside. Mr Hoong says Australia has invested too little on hotel capacity, adding that he believes in the motto “if you build it they will come”.
“Macau is a good example of this. Before the American operators came in there was only one casino operator and when the new licences were being sought everyone thought there was no way they were going to fill the ­capacity,” he says.
“If you look at the growth there in the last 10 years, in the early stage of the development there was a lot of capacity and that ­supply drew in more demand.”
Echo Entertainment chief executive Matt Bekier says the ­potential of Asian tourists is “quite amazing” but he agrees that the challenge is capacity.
“We are still in a honeymoon period because there is latent ­capacity that is now being soaked up through incremental growth,” he says.
“Chinese tourism over the last 12 months has grown by 30 per cent to 40 per cent but we can still absorb it but if this (growth) ­carries on for much longer we need substantial more capacity.”
The Echo chief says Australia is witnessing the “first cohorts” of the most affluent and experienced Asian travellers hitting our shores. He says behind that are much larger numbers.
Mr Bekier points to Chinese domestic tourist numbers as an example of the scale of the potential. Last week, during the annual “Golden Week” holiday in China, 650 million Chinese people travelled in their country.
“The patterns of behavioural change we see that comes with higher affluence is you start to spend more of your wallet on ­travel,” Mr Bekier says.
“The first trips are in China, travelling in an environment they know, then out of China to Hong Kong or Korea, then Southeast Asia and then Australia. In 20 years’ time a portion of that 650 million will travel to Australia, even if it’s only 1 per cent of that, it’s a massive long-term trend.” Patrick Tsang, chief executive of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, a giant Chinese conglomerate controlled by Hong Kong’s wealthy Cheng family, is backing the growth of the Chinese middle class to shake off the economic fears of the Asian giant.
He says the company is so heavily invested in China that it is confident in its future growth ­despite concerns about a slump.
“Yes the economy is slowing down but it is still growing at a healthy pace when compared to a lot of other countries elsewhere, it was just growing at a very, very strong pace before,” he says.
Far East Consortium chairman, David Chiu, adds that while the slowdown in China’s growth is hurting businesses he says it is short-term pain as he highlights that the “Chinese middle class are coming”.
“China is slowing down … but it is no big deal. China is coming to a level of maturity. In the future if China can maintain 5 to 6 per cent growth, that is respectable.”
The two Hong Kong giants have shrugged off economic concerns in both China and Australia with their investment in the Queens Wharf project. Each has taken a 25 per cent interest in the resort development and a 50 per cent interest each in the residential development. The project will include three residential towers with about 2000 units, five world-class hotels, retail outlets and a ­casino.
Mr Tsang said the integrated resort model and the link with domestic partner, Echo Entertainment, gave the company the confidence to join the consortium to bid for the Queens Wharf ­project.
“We are confident we can also bring a certain international demand to look at those apartments,” he says.
The Chow Tai Fook chief says the aim of the integrated resort model was also to ensure that it was not just a “one trip event” for tourists. He says one aim is for tourists to get a strong sense of what is on offer in Australia and be encouraged to buy an apartment and potentially send their kids to school in Australia.
He adds that Chow Tai Fook is confident on the positive impact the increased flow of Asian ­visitors can have.
“If you look at the history of the (Cheng) family, we basically grew as Hong Kong developed and as China opened up,” he says.
“We understand what this emerging middle class, this pool of potential visitors that will be travelling to Australia, want and what they will be looking for.”
Hong Kong is a shining example of the economic boost tourists from mainland China can bring. In 1997 Chinese tourists into Hong Kong numbered about 3.6 million, last year it was 36 million.
Mr Chiu says there is no other country that can fuel that visitation growth and he says it is about to hit Australia. He says it will be the migration of people from the outskirts to the cities and of foreigners entering Australia that will fuel its future growth.
“I’m of the view that until ­Australia says no, there will be continued migrations from Asia,” he says.
“Australia has the land resource, the legal system and the capacity. If I were a politician in Australia I would see for its future that if it becomes the USA of Asia it will go a long way.”
The reporter travelled to Hong Kong as a guest of Echo Entertainment.