Unit holders of the strata-titled Best Western Emerald Hotel on Mount Street have appointed a real estate agent with the intention of selling the property.
Unit holders of the strata-titled Best Western Emerald Hotel on Mount Street have appointed a real estate agent with the intention of selling the property.
The agent has been asked to call for expressions of interest to test the market.
At a general meeting of owners last week, a majority of the 60 odd unit holders passed a motion to put the 3.5-star hotel on the market, as Perth hotels continue to perform strongly as high demand drives occupancies and room rates higher.
Chairman of the owners committee, Nigel Prescott, told WA Business News the majority of owners felt that seeking an expression of interest from potential buyers at this time was the right way forward.
“Hotels are generally doing reasonably well at the moment. It’s gone from being static for 10 years to a boom time. Now is a sensible time to look at our options,” he said.
Mr Prescott said the committee was currently in the very early stages of conducting due diligence on the property, with the unit holders to gather again in a fortnight to formulate a detailed plan.
With a total of 103 entitlements, the 101-room hotel opened in 1989 as the Mount Street Inn and was one of the first strata-titled hotels in Perth.
After a $500,000 major upgrade of rooms and a refurbishment of its restaurant in 1998, the hotel changed its name to the Emerald Hotel in a bid to attract more business from the Asian corporate market.
The five-storey hotel also has four function rooms.
Mr Prescott said most of the current unit holders were the original purchasers.
The decision follows the sale a two other Perth CBD hotels in recent months. In late May, West Perth’s 24-room Outram Hotel was sold to US-based Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific for $6 million.
The new owners intend to run the hotel as a mixed-use operation, offering rooms at the luxury boutique hotel to the public as well as its 36,000 timeshare owners in the Asia Pacific region.
Last month, the 276-room Hotel Grand Chancellor on Wellington Street changed hands for $52 million, bought by Brisbane-based property trust Property Funds Australia, which is 50 per cent owned by Mirvac Ltd.
In May, the proposed $70 million sale of the 3.5 star Kings Hotel was aborted, with the owners instead committing to a major refurbishment of the 119-room, 11-storey hotel complex.
But while the strong demand for hotel accommodation has led to a shortage of rooms, new hotel developments have remained stagnant due to soaring construction costs.
With the city’s most recent new hotel, The Richardson, opening in November 2006, several other city hotels, including the Sheraton and Seasons of Perth, have decided to capitalise on the strong demand by undertaking additions and renovations to increase their capacity.
New developments, such as the Frasers Suites in East Perth and the state government’s tender for a new five-star hotel development at the Old Treasury building on St Georges Terrace, are the only new hotels slated for the CBD.
