Rosewood Hotel Georgia to be sold for $145 million
Joanne Lee-Young
The Province
A deal has been struck to sell one of the city’s oldest hotels.
The Rosewood Hotel Georgia in downtown Vancouver has been around since 1927. For years, it was known for playing host to the likes of Elvis, Frank Sinatra and Jayne Mansfield.
In 2011, the historic landmark completed a four-year, $120-million restoration that preserved the heritage facade and expanded the rooms inside. It was brought under new management.
This week, a deal was made for it to be sold to a joint-venture of Hong Kongbased firms owned by two brothers for $145 million.
Able Shine Enterprises and Magnificent Hotel Investments will together buy the hotel from Vancouver-based Delta Land Development Ltd., but it will continue to be managed by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, a Dallas-based group.
Magnificent Hotel is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and owns five Best Western and other hotels in Hong Kong, plus one in Shanghai. Last year, it made some headlines when its subsidiary swooped in, post-Brexit in June, to buy the 408-room Travelodge London Kings Cross Royal Scot Hotel for about 70 million pounds. Magnificent’s chairman, William Cheng Kai-man, commented at the time that a significant drop in the British currency helped to seal the deal.
A post earlier this week on Magnificent’s website describes the recent acquisition in Vancouver as “an excellent opportunity to enter the vibrant (local) real estate and hotel market at a nearly construction-replacement cost, for a new and most prestigious building on the most prominent address of the city centre with initial yield of four per cent.”
Able Shine is a private company that was incorporated in October 2016.
According to filings with the HKSE, Able Shine is owned by Jonathan Cheng, William Cheng’s brother.
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