The Bank of China has sold Causeway Bay's Rosedale hotel to Johnathon Cheng, a director of Hong Kong-based hotel operator and investor Shun Ho Property Investments. The 299-guestroom hotel reportedly changed hands for $211.4 million, putting the price per room at approximately $707,300.
The newly renovated property sold for nearly double the approximately $107 million it sold for during the 2009 financial crisis.
Shun Ho Property Investments operates a portfolio of more than 2,600 guestrooms in Hong Kong and Shanghai, including five Best Western properties. William Cheng also runs Magnificent Hotel Investments, Shun Ho Resources Holdings and Shun Ho Tech Holdings.
In February, the investor added the 317-guestroom Newton Inn in North Point to that portfolio for $129 million (approximately $885 per square foot) from Henderson. Shun Ho has planned to convert the hotel into a retail building. The purchase followed Cheng's first foray into Great Britain’s' market with the $92.9 million acquisition of a London Travelodge hotel on King's Cross Road in July last year.
Shun Ho's hotel investment activity has been heating up as Hong Kong rebounds from a downfall in hospitality. While the island saw a 1.9-percent rise in visitor numbers in the first eight months of 2017, occupancy secured a 0.5-percent increase year-on-year to 86.6 percent last month. Other investors have recognized this uptick in hotel market performance, leading to the completion of three hotel buys in Hong Kong totaling $100 million in the first quarter of 2017. Following these sales, Hong Kong-based Tang Shing-bor acquired Wan Chai's Hotel Bonaparte for $57.5 million.
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group also attempted to join in the hotel sales as it put the Excelsior Hotel on the market in early 2017. However, bids for the property were far below the hotel's list price at up to $4.4 billion, sending stock prices plunging by 30 percent. Mandarin Oriental decided to drop the hotel sale last month.