THE Claisebrook Apartment Hotel has been sold for $5.3 million to a Perth property developer, opening the way for a new apartment development at the Nile Street property.
The management and 17 staff were notified last week that the syndicate of owners, headed by Carepoint CEO David Wee, had sold the business to a newly established private company, Grand International Pty Ltd.
Grand International was formed by engineer and property developer Leon Davies, who is a director of the Australian Technical Services (ATS) Group.
Settlement of the 93-room strata-titled hotel, which was built almost two decades ago, is expected on September 15.
The new buyer has reassured staff and manager David Walters that it will be business as usual for the hotel. For the past 12 months the hotel has been managed by the Consolation Hotel Group, a subsidiary of the Sydney-based Touraust Corporation, which also manages the Chifley Hotel chain.
Besides his investment in the Claisebrook Apartment Hotel, Mr Wee also has an interest in the Perth Chifley Hotel, opened in 1999, and the Perth Clinic in West Perth.
Mr Wee said the current owners had made more than 100 per cent in capital appreciation after buying the hotel seven years ago for $2.5 million.
Plans are also said to be under way to develop the large vacant area surrounding the hotel.
Since taking on the management of the hotel, Mr Walters has increased the profitability by lifting the average occupancy rate from around 25 per cent to 75 per cent.
