At least ten billionaires, including Pansy Ho of Hong Kong and Sukanto Tanoto of Indonesia, are investing more than S$6 billion (US$4.4 billion or RM20.57 billion) in the development of additional hotels and the expansion of their businesses throughout the city state.
According to a report published on Wednesday by Forbes Asia, Singapore’s main shopping district, Orchard Road, will house several of the city-state’s newest hotels as part of a revitalization plan for the surrounding area.
According to the report, UOL Group is already hard at work converting the site of the Faber House building on Orchard Road into a 19-story hotel with 200 rooms for its visitors.
And that project started just as UOL opened another hotel a few blocks away.
According to Forbes, the Pan Pacific Orchard began welcoming visitors in June.
The 23-story, 347-room luxury hotel has four outdoor decks and more than 7,300 square meters of landscaping.
The nature-inspired hotel has become one of UOL’s flagship properties, which is owned by Singaporean banking and real estate magnate Wee Cho Yaw.
The former Mandarin Orchard, now known as the Hilton Orchard, was reopened in February of last year by Indonesian billionaire Mochtar Riady’s OUE. The 1,080-room hotel underwent major renovations with a style that honors Singapore’s agricultural past.
Invictus Developments, owned by fellow Indonesian billionaire Bachtiar Karim, is building a 143-room boutique hotel called
The Standard on neighboring Orange Grove Road. That property, which will be located close to the Shangri-La, is set to open next year.
The COMO Metropolitan Singapore, located just off Orchard Road, is scheduled to open this month.
Como Hotels and Resorts, the Singapore-based company created by Christina Ong, the wife of Hotel Properties managing director Ong Beng Seng, developed the 156-room hotel and commercial complex.
Singapore’s growing selection of new accommodations stands to gain from the nation’s strong post-pandemic recovery.
According to figures from the Singapore Tourism Board, the number of visitors arriving in the Lion City increased to 1.42 million in July compared to the same month last year.
According to Forbes, the government expects up to 14 million tourists to visit the country this year, spending up to S$21 billion.
A hotel is being built as part of a mixed-use residential and commercial project on the other side of Marina Bay by IOI Properties, which is owned by Malaysian billionaire brothers Datuk Lee Yeow Chor and Lee Yeow Seng.
In July, Pacific Eagle Real Estate, a company owned by Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto, debuted its first hotel in Singapore in Tanjong Pagar, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Raffles Place. The $400 million Mondrian Singapore Duxton, which has 304 rooms, is located close to Chinatown.
The first Edition hotel in Singapore, a 204-room boutique hotel that is a part of the luxury mixed-use complex that also includes the Boulevard 88 residential condominium next to the Four Seasons Hotel, will open in November as well, thanks to billionaire Kwek Leng Beng’s City Developments and Hong Leong Group.
In other parts of Singapore, millionaire Choo Chong Ngen has been swiftly growing into mid-tier markets after initially making his wealth from the low-cost hotel company Hotel 81 in the city’s red light district.
Choo’s Worldwide Hotels, led by his daughter Carolyn, purchased the 542-room Parkroyal on Kitchener near Little India from Wee’s UOL in July for S$525 million and is rebranding it as Novotel Singapore. By the end of the year, the business plans to open two brand-new hotels in the Lion City for a total of S$1.1 billion.