Mining billionaire Sam Chong to develop second Brisbane hotel

By Larry Schlesinger
Thursday, 15 November 2012

The Brisbane CBD is developing into something of a hotel development hotspot with Malaysian-born mining billionaire Sam Chong reportedly acquiring a parcel of land from property group Devine with plans to build another hotel in the Queensland capital.

The site forms part of scrapped plans by Devine to develop a $1 billion “French quarter” that was to comprise an apartment and retail complex bounded by Alice, Albert and Margaret streets.

Sunland acquired half of the site in December 2009 with plans to develop an apartment tower.

According to a report in The Australian, Chong acquired his parcel of land for around $18 million. He also own an adjoining property known as the Carrington site.

Chong is currently developing a 32-storey hotel tower on Mary Street that will be leased to Starwood Hotels & Resorts and operate under its luxury Sheraton brand.

The 246 room hotel is due for completion by January 2014 and will be known as the Four Points by Sheraton Brisbane.

It follows the opening of the Four Points by Sheraton Perth in June 2012 with the expansion of the Sheraton brand into Brisbane seen as part of a growing demand for accommodation for cities benefiting from the mining boom.

In September, Singapore-based hotel group SilverNeedle Hospitality acquired the four-star Chifley at Lennons Hotel (also known as the Lennons Plaza hotel) at 66 Queen Street Mall Brisbane CBD for around $57 million.

SilverNeedle will refurbish the hotel and convert the existing commercial office space into hotel accommodation, doubling the room count to 300.

The revamped hotel is set to open in 2014 in time for the G20 summit and will be rebranded as NEXT hotel, a new brand to be launched by SilverNeedle in Australia.

According to the most recent Dransfield report, the Brisbane hotel sector performed strongly over the March quarter with revenue per available room (revPAR) up 17% over the quarter. However the Brisbane hotel occupancy rate fell from 82.5% in the December quarter to 77.6%.