Land of the setting sun
Japan’s interests in Gold Coast hotels peaked at 10 but will hit zero when the Watermark sale goes through
ONCE they owned 10 and, from June, they’ll own none – Gold Coast hotels that is. The “they’’ is Japanese investors and the last of them is just checking out.
Without them, the Gold Coast would have had far fewer hotels.
For many years the Japanese were wedded to the idea of owning hotels in the tourism capital but, in terms of the marriage vow “for richer, for poorer’’, they’ve generally gone home poorer.
The sale of the Watermark in Surfers Paradise by Tokyobased travel giant H.I.S., due to settle in two months, ends a Japanese yen for Gold Coast hotels that started in the mid-80s.
This yen has been a winner for the city, in that Japanese groups built six of the 10 hotels they’ve owned.
They range from the hotel that’s the centrepiece of the Royal Pines Resort to the Marriott and the Crowne Plaza.
To say that some of the Japanese have left town badly bruised is, in at least a couple of cases, a rather large understatement.
The Sun group, which built the Lakelands golf course and lost $60 million or more on it, also was clobbered on the Crowne Plaza.
The reported cost of the twin towers, one with a revolving rooftop restaurant, was $120 million.
Teo Lay Swee, former owner of Singapore’s Cockpit Hotel, bought it for $35 million when Sun was in retreat in the late 90s.
Matsushita, of National Panosonic fame, is believed to have spent around $200 million building the Royal Pines hotel and golf resort in the late 1980s.
Thirteen years ago it apparently decided the property was spending too much time in the rough financially and put it on the market.
Morgan Stanley swooped with a low-ball offer of $44.37 million and walked away with a prize that included not just a hotel but 27 golf holes and a swag of housing lots.
Mastsushita also lost when it bought the then Holiday Inn and adjoining Galleria shopping centre in Surfers Paradise for $128.5 million in 1988.
The hotel, rebranded the ANA and today the Mantra on View, and shops were exited for $105.75 million in 2004.
Other hotels that have had Japanese proprietors are the Sheraton on the Spit, the Hyatt at Sanctuary Cove, and the Novotel and QT in Surfers Paradise.
The QT was built in the mid-80s by the first of the 10 Japanese landlords, Palm Meadows golf course developer Daikyo.
Not to be forgotten is the hotel at Sea World, in which Japan’s Nara group was a development partner and sold out to Village Roadshow in 2006.
With the Japanese withdrawal, a common subject around coffee tables is whether the Chinese will target the hotel game with equal enthusiasm.
They already own Palazzo Versace on The Spit and the part-built Jewel hotel tower, with billionaire Tony Fung planning a luxury property at the northern edge of Surfers Paradise.
TO SAY THAT SOME OF THE JAPANESE HAVE LEFT TOWN BADLY BRUISED IS, IN AT LEAST A COUPLE OF CASES, A RATHER LARGE UNDERSTATEMENT.