Genting International to build hotel at new S'pore Sports Hub

SINGAPORE: A new hotel will be built at the new National Stadium and Sports Hub in Kallang.

The four-star hotel will have about 500 rooms and will occupy 30,000 square metres.

Dragages Singapore, which is the construction firm for the winning consortium -the Singapore Sports Hub, said that at least three groups expressed interest in building the new hotel, which will cost S$200 million to develop.

Even before last Saturday's announcement that the consortium had won the bid to build the new sports hub, Dragages had already been in talks with Genting International for the past few months.

Genting will build and run the new hotel for 25 years.

Ludwig Reichhold, Managing Director of Dragages Singapore, said: "The hotel was an option in our bid, which I think was to bring more life to the project which SSC liked very much. So it would be included in the construction, but it is only one component of the project."

However, details still need to be sorted out. These include finalising the financing with banks and negotiations with the Singapore Land Authority and Urban Redevelopment Authority over issues like development charges and the right to use the land.

The details have to be finalised before the paperwork can be signed in one or two months. The head of the consortium said the hotel's construction will begin in the middle of 2008.

The hotel's plot is near the two multi-purpose halls, the future MRT station and the main entrance road. As for the sports hub, the consortium wants to call it 'Premier Park' but authorities have yet to confirm what it will be called.

The new hub is expected to generate at least S$10 million a year in commercial revenue, as a start.

Up to 75 per cent of the money will be used to fund activities and facilities at the hub.

Reichhold said: "The revenue is also linked to the expenditure. If the market is good, we will invest more money into the project to have more events and more facilities, to have more return."

The consortium plans to open the hotel at the same time as the new Sports Hub, which is in three years. - CNA/vm

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