Singaporean businessman Robert Tan considers himself a lucky man, having made small but strategic investments in Perth’s struggling hotel sector in the early 1990s that have since rewarded him handsomely.
Singaporean businessman Robert Tan considers himself a lucky man, having made small but strategic investments in Perth’s struggling hotel sector in the early 1990s that have since rewarded him handsomely.
He and business partner Kok Kwong Han purchased the historic Criterion Hotel on Hay street, formerly known as the Hotel Regatta, in 1995 for $4 million, before spending a further $3 million retrofitting it in 1996 to 3.5-star standards.
Mr Tan said the past 10 years had been difficult, and there were many times Perth’s hotel vacancy rates were so low that revenue was non-existent.
“It was a difficult market here in the early days when I was really learning the hotel business for the first time. I come from a construction and development background in Singapore, but not hospitality. I lived and learned at the same time,” Mr Tan said.
Prior to this investment, Mr Tan also purchased the 3-star All Travellers Motel on Great Eastern highway Belmont which, to his delight, is being redeveloped into 57 apartments, which have already sold-out off the plan.
With his focus now firmly set on the Criterion, the quiet investor is embarking on an ambitious plan to redevelop the rear portion of the 2,266 square metre block into a $35 million, 24-storey mixed-use tower comprising 112 apartments staged over three-tiers with a rooftop pool.
Mr Tan said buyers needed no incentive to snap up the apartments, priced between $300,000 and $1.2 million, with 85 per cent of the project now sold.
A stand-out feature of the project is its automated car parking system, designed in Japan, which hoists cars up to a height of 12-storeys before slotting them into vertical parking racks.
The system will be a first for Perth, which is dealing with a critical shortage of car parking bays at a time when the inner-city residential market is exploding.
Mr Tan said the car park would fit neatly into the centre of the building, where there would be no views to exploit.
Demolition of the site, next to Miss Maud’s, is expected to begin later this month, with completion of the project now forecast for end 2008.
As for another major refurbishment of the Criterion Hotel, the owners are toying with the idea and will likely make a decision once the Criterion Towers project is complete.
Steeped in history as a former watering hole of the state Liberal Party, the 69-room art-deco hotel is believed to be the first building in Western Australia supplied with electricity, and is now the last remaining traditional hotel with accommodation in the CBD.
The hotel was put on the market in 2003 at $15.3 million, and was almost sold in 2004, before the sale fell through.
Mr Tan said he was fortunate to be still in the game considering the market upswing of the last three years, and believed there was still a good three to five years of life left in it.
“I wouldn’t say I have foresight, I think I’m just lucky…I will build something and hope that somebody up there will look after us,” he said.
