Private development and construction group Grocon has reportedly selected a heavyweight (but unnamed) Chinese consortium to buy the $700 million hotel development it proposed for Sydney’s Darling Harbour.
The sale of The Ribbon would be the biggest sale of a single hotel property in Australia's history.
The deal, which is supposedly close to being finalized, comes after two major hotel portfolio sales to Asian investors—that of M&L Hospitality and the Ascendas Hospitality Trust—were called off this month. Singapore’s Kum family scrapped its $1.5 billion sale of the bulk of its M&L Hospitality hotels portfolio in spite of "hefty offers" for its key properties. These include one of Sydney’s largest hotels, the Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, which is being remade into a major hotel and office complex. The 2,089-room M&L portfolio also included the Travelodge Docklands in Melbourne, the Hilton Auckland, Christchurch’s Chateau on the Park, and Sydney’s Swissotel. In the same week, the rival Ascendas Hospitality Trust, which has a hotel portfolio across the region that is valued at $1.4 billion, was also taken off the market.
Grocon is planning to build a "six-star" W Hotel and luxury serviced apartments, which were marketed on Grocon’s behalf by Craig Collins and Simon Storry of JLL and Dean Dransfield of consultants Dransfield Hotels and Resorts.
Source: The Australian