Perth's Ritz-Carlton up for sale

A ‘for sale’ sign has gone up at the flagship project at Elizabeth Quay, with developer Far East Consortium putting its Ritz-Carlton hotel on the block just one week after Premier Colin Barnett turned the first sod on the luxury development.

JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group has been appointed to sell the 204-room hotel, on a turn-key basis on behalf of developer Far East Consortium.

Contractor Probuild started work on the Ritz-Carlton earlier this month, with the hotel expected to open in 2019.

The $500 million development also includes two apartment towers, which are not subject to the sales campaign.

Marketing will run for between six and eight weeks before JLL will call for expressions of interest.

JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group vice-president Aaron Desange said he expected the hotel to be a trophy asset for a keen investor.

“There is a very strong possibility that the buyer will come from Asia,” he said.

“Most of the trophy assets that we’ve sold in the last few years in Australia have been to Asian purchasers.”

Mr Desange said he expected extremely strong interest in the asset, but would not make a prediction on what sort of a price tag it will fetch, only saying it would definitely be a new record for a hotel transaction in Western Australia.

“There has never been a hotel of this profile sold in Western Australia,” he said.

“The only real five-star luxury trophy deal in Australia that would be anything comparable was the Park Hyatt in Sydney, but that deal was done a long time ago.

“In recent years, I don’t think there has been anything sold of such trophy nature.”

The Sydney Park Hyatt was sold in 2007 for $201 million, while the largest hotel transaction in more recent years in Australia was the sale of Sydney’s Sheraton on the Park, which sold for $463 million in 2014.

Mr Desange said Far East Consortium’s rationale behind the sale was to release equity to focus on other projects.

“They are predominantly residential developers; while they do own hotels around the world, they generally owner occupy most of the hotels that they own under their Dorsett brand,” Mr Desange said.

Far East Consortium is also developing Ritz-Carlton properties in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.