NEWSFLASH 28th September 2015 We still have some availability for your advertising in Design Insider, The BCFA’s official directory for 2016. Please follow the link HERE for full details, booking form, media pack and a link to the previous edition. The directory is distributed to a wide and targeted selection of industry professionals and specifiers. BOOKING & ARTWORK DEADLINE 16th OCTOBER Construction buyers reported a seven month high in output growth as the latest Markit/CIPS UK Construction PMI index rose sharply to 59.9 in September from 57.3 in August. Buyers reported encouraging growth across all sectors as residential building enjoyed its highest rise for 12 months. Seddon starts work in November 2015 on the 54,000 sq ft Mulberry Walk Retail Park development in Sutton Coldfield. The project includes construction of retail space, a service yard, car parking and hard and soft landscaping for 22 units in the Mere Green area of the city as part of a wider £18m scheme designed by K4 Architects. Work on the project is expected to be completed by October 2016. A 115-bed Holiday Inn Express will be opened at the Stockport Exchange scheme after Muse Developments and Stockport Council completed agreements with InterContinental Hotels Group. Holiday Inn Express Stockport, which is due to open in 2017, will form part of the second phase of the mixed-use development. Muse said that the hotel's design would reflect the town's history featuring vertical fins that reference the grade II-listed Victorian covered market nearby. It will include amenities such as a bar, a restaurant and meeting facilities. Besides the hotel, the second phase of work will result in the creation of a new 50,000 sq ft, fivestorey office and a pedestrianised public space serving as a gateway from the train station into the town. The Peel Group is rebranding an area of land encompassing the Trafford Centre in Manchester and its surrounding 3.5 million sq. ft. of retail, leisure and office space. The area is to be known as ‘Trafford City’. Trafford City will incorporate both Event City and Chill Factore as part of the mixed-use destination. The rebranding is designed to create an all-encompassing name for the area which Peel Group hope will become recognised both regionally and on a national level. It comes ahead of a number of major changes to the area, including a planned increase in the number of hotel bedrooms; and the expected green light for a Metrolink line between Trafford City and Manchester city centre. John Lewis is planning a £37m department store in the Victoria Gate area of Leeds in the autumn 2016, and also new stores in Westfield London and Oxford in 2017. Also, the firm is planning to open a new flexible format shop in Chelmsford in 2016. This format sits between the full size department stores and the 'at home' shops averaging between 65,000 to 100,000 sq ft. The company is the anchor tenant of the new £150m Grand Central retail development in Birmingham, with a just-opened £35m department store. Chorley Council has approved plans for a £13m extension to Market Walk shopping precinct, including a cinema, shops and hundreds of jobs. The council, which owns the centre after buying it for £23m, will not start work until 75% of the units have been signed up on pre-lets. Reel Cinemas have already signed up and the council is in discussions with retailers. Topland Group has launched a joint venture with Marick Real Estate and Mill Lane Estates focused on hotel development. Topland, one of the largest privately owned international investment groups, led by Sol Zakay, is the majority equity partner in the new venture. The first project for the JV is Trafford City Hotel, in Manchester, after buying a 1.75-acre site from Peel Holdings. Planning permission is in place for a new 203-bedroom hotel and it is expected work will commence in early 2016. The Trafford City Hotel will be operated by Tower Hotel Management which is part of the Peel Group. The JV follows the construction of a 190bedroom Hampton by Hilton hotel at London City Airport, for which Topland provided Marick with a £22m development finance facility. Mill Lane Estates is the development manager on the Docklands project. HARROGATE £1.2m Franklin House, 4 Victoria Avenue Planning authority: Harrogate Job: Detail Plans Granted for hotel/restaurant (conversion/extension) Client: John Franklin Asset Management Developer: Nidd Design, 14 Pannal Ash Close, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG2 9AE Tel: 07775 992709 BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 1 LIVERPOOL £3.2M CCP Car park, 45 - 61 Gradwell Street Planning authority: Liverpool Job: Detail Plans Granted for restaurant/cafe Client: Frenson Ltd Developer: Snook Architects, 10 Duke Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L1 5AS Tel: 01517 070100 BASILDON £9.225m Eastgate Shopping Centre, Eastgate Centre Planning authority: Basildon Job: Detail Plans Granted for cinema/shop/restaurant (conversion/extension) Client: Infra Red UK Retail Nominee 1 Ltd Developer: Haskoll & Company, 39 Harrington Gardens, London, SW7 4JU Tel: 020 7835 1188 ST. AUSTELL £0.6M The Cornwall Hotel Spa & Estate, Pentewan Road Tregorrick Planning authority: Cornwall Job: Detail Plans Granted for hotel & restaurant (extension) Client: Belle Isle Hotels (Cornwall) Ltd Developer: AWW, 22 Sutton Road, Sutton Harbour, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 0HN Tel: 01752 261 282 Sports Direct Fitness is laying the foundations for its ‘aggressive’ expansion over the next year by bringing in fresh blood and setting aside £250m to turbocharge the gym chain’s growth. Mike Ashley is happy with the dual-use gym and retail concept devised by the company and is now eager to scale up the rollout of new sites. The ‘£250m war chest’ will be used to gain a stronger foothold in the south east of England as the chain aims to reach its ultimate goal of 200 gyms nationwide.The company plans to launch up to 16 new sites in 2016 under the dual-use concept which has seen it offer memberships from as little as £5 per month. Lana de Savary and her husband, international entrepreneurial businessman Peter de Savary, are building bespoke, intimate new spas at two of their quintessentially English countryside hotels. The de Savarays are building a £1m spa at The Old Swan & Minster Mill in the picturesque Cotswolds, set to open in June 2016 and available only to hotel guests. The de Savarays are also planning a new spa at their hotel in Devon, England, The Cary Arms, which is currently undergoing a £1.5m expansion – also adding six chic beach huts and three Riviera villas, all on the water’s edge with views across Lyme Bay. Hackney Borough planning committee has given the thumbs up for plans to build a 45-storey mixed hotel and office block next to the Broadgate development in London. New York hotel developer Masterworks Development Corporation, owner of the Club Quarters hotel brand, is aiming to build the 340,000 sq ft tower at 13-14 Appold Street, just within the London council’s southern boundary. The 390-room hotel will fill the top 27-floor section of the 156m high-rise with offices filling out the lower 16 floors of the tower and podium. The existing seven-storey Bavaria House building will be vacated in July with demolition scheduled to take place in November. This will clear the way for a three and a half-year construction programme, with the year-long basement programme due to start in March. The superstructure will be mainly concrete columns with post-tensioned floor slabs. An 18-month fit-out phase is expected to get underway in the summer of 2017. Project team Architect: KPF Structural engineer: WSP Services engineer: Grontmij Transport engineer: Arup EIA Consultant: Waterman Group In London, the hotel group has already developed four hotels at St Paul’s, Trafalgar Square, Lincoln Inn Fields and Gracechurch Street. Ogilvie Construction has checked in with the job to build an 13-storey hotel in Glasgow for German chain Motel One. A total of £18m is being invested in the hotel, which will become Scotland’s third Motel One when it opens as well as the largest in the region. The 374-bed hotel, bar and restaurant will be built on the corner of Oswald Street and Argyle Street, next to Central Station and the international finance services district. Cathedral Group has been granted planning permission to transform the Grade II-listed Old Town Hall in Bromley into a hotel, restaurant and conference centre. Built in 1907, the Old Town Hall will be converted into a 94 bedroom hotel. The £20million project will also include two new restaurants and a five storey block of flats with basement parking built on the adjacent South Street car park. Construction work is expected to begin in the second half of 2016, with the Bromley Old Town Hall hotel opening late 2017. Marriott Hotels plan to open a Moxy-branded hotel in York. The group has obtained planning consent to develop a 120-bedroom Moxy Hotel in the Hungate area of York. Moxy is Marriott’s new economy hotel brand. Moxy York will be the sixth UK location secured for a Moxy hotel. It joins three sites in London at Heathrow, Stratford and the Royal Docks plus units planned in Ashbourne and Aberdeen. The first Moxy Hotel opened in Europe twelve months ago at Milan Airport. Construction work has started on the new £13million Bedford Hotel project in Belfast. The hotel will be located in the former Scottish Mutual building on Donegall Square South. The six-storey building will include 70-bedrooms, two restaurants and a banqueting suite. The owners of the Galgorm Resort & Spa in Ballymena are the hotel operators. The Bedford Hotel will compete with several new hotel developments in Belfast. Hastings Hotels have acquired Windsor House in the centre of Belfast and plan to convert the former office block into a new 200-bedroom hotel. Beannchor, owner of the Merchant Hotel in central Belfast, has submitted plans to renovate Lagan House and convert that into a 55-bedroom hotel with a planned opening in 2016. BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 2 The Cairn Group has purchased the 114-bedroom Ramada Glasgow Airport hotel and has plans to invest £8million on a major refurbishment over the next 12 months. Ramada Glasgow Airport hotel is located just off the M8 motorway, 500 yards from the airport terminal and seven miles from Glasgow city centre. Despite the full re-design and re-work which is planned, Ramada Glasgow Airport hotel will operate normally throughout. The Cairn Group operate 24 hotels from Aberdeen to London under several brand banners including DoubleTree by Hilton, Crowne Plaza, Best Western, and Holiday Inn. Trafford City Hotel is a new 203-bedroom hotel planned on a 1.75-acre development site opposite the EventCity venue at the Trafford Centre in Manchester. Construction is expected to start in early 2016 and open ahead of the 2018 extension of the Manchester Metrolink tram system. Trafford City Hotel will be operated by Tower Hotel Management, which is part of the Peel Group. Discussions are underway to badge the hotel with a leading brand. Stonegate Pub Company has acquired 53 TCG pubs in a deal thought to be worth £100m. The deal will see the Slug and Lettuce operator convert the TCG pubs to its seven different formats, which also include Yates's, the Living Room and Classic Inns. Among TCG's best-known sites, which Stonegate acquires as part of the agreement, are London landmarks such as the Tattershall Castle, a floating pub on the Thames, and the St James Tavern in Soho. It takes Stonegate's estate to 665 pubs, including 37 new freeholds from the TCG estate. The Coaching Inn Group – recently rebranded from the Bulldog Hotel Group – has doubled its profits and increased turnover to over £10m. In the company’s latest accounts, turnover is reported has having increased by 22% increase to £10.07m in the year to March 2015. Operating profit before exceptional deal costs more than doubled from £388,500 to £800,000, while pre-tax profit increased by 88% to £510,000. The group’s seven regional coaching inns operated during the last financial year achieved an EBITDA figure of £2m – an average of £285,000 per site – with food and beverage accounting for 68% of revenue. In January the company announced a £20m expansion plan following the acquisition of a 20% stake in the business by property investment company Commer Group for an undisclosed sum. This was followed in March by an investment of £4.5m from the Business Growth Fund. The International Convention Centre (ICC) in Birmingham has embarked on a rolling three-year £10m refurbishment programme that has already provided a facelift to its largest flat-floored space, the 3,000m² Hall 3, and Registration Area, and is currently in progress throughout its Mall. As well as hall and meeting room updates, the programme also includes new digital signage and screens throughout the venue, new lighting and carpets, and toilet upgrades. This marks a boost to its already extensive ongoing maintenance schedule which has been in place since the venue opened nearly 25 years ago. Two more tenants have signed up for Aviva Investor, Exemplar Properties and Kaupthing’s 2 Fitzroy Place in London’s West End. Travelport, the travel platform which floated on the New York Stock Exchange last year, is under offer to take a lower floor in the 80,000 sq ft building. Lendinvest, a peer-to-peer lending platform for mortgages created by Montello, is also taking a 13,000 sq ft floor, while another floor is under offer and there is interest in the remaining space. The duo of new tenants will join Allfunds Bank, which took the two top floors earlier this year. JP Morgan has shelved plans to sell a huge development site in Canary Wharf, with senior management considering relaunching its plans for new headquarters on the site. Top brass at the US bank has put on hold the sale of Riverside South, which was down to a shortlist of three parties and expected to fetch around £400m, while it reviews its occupational requirements in London. It appointed agents at GM Real Estate and Knight Frank to market the site earlier this year after abandoning plans to build a 2m sq ft European HQ at the height of the recession. It is thought bosses in New York have instructed its property team to reconsider whether the site should be retained. JP Morgan bought the long leasehold interest in the site from Canary Wharf Group in 2008 for £237m, but canned its plans and instead bought the 1m sq ft former Lehman Brothers HQ at 25 Bank Street for £500m in 2010. Egon Zehnder has confirmed it is taking 24,000 sq ft at Land Securities’ Nova scheme in London Victoria, marking the building’s second office letting 10 months ahead of completion. The headhunter will move its UK headquarters to the 14th and 15th floors at Nova South on a 15-year lease starting early in 2017. The deal comes after private equity firm Advent International signed for 25,000 sq ft in July. Nova South and Nova North will together deliver 480,000 sq ft of grade A office space when it completes next July. Two offices speculatively developed by MEPC spanning 55,000 sq ft in Oxfordshire have been fully let. MEPC announced that 101 and 102 Park Drive at Milton Park, which were built at a cost of £15m last year and were the first offices to be built in an Enterprise Zone since the government launched the concept in 2012, have been let to six companies. 102 Park Drive has been leased in its entirety to pharmaceutical company Ipsen and 101 Park Drive has been leased in suites to Benchmark International, Commerce Decisions, Italian Wines & Beverages, Immunocore and Adaptimmune. Elekta, the Swedish medical technology group, has agreed to take a 150,600 sq ft prelet at Manor Royal Business District near Crawley to develop a radiotherapy centre of excellence. The group is believed to have agreed a 20-year-lease at £23.50 / sq ft for the research and development facility, which will sit next to its existing European training centre on a five acre site. The Manor BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 3 Royal scheme is funded by LaSalle Investment Management and Bridgecore Developments. The pair is understood to have stumped up £23m to build the site out to Elekta’s specifications. By 2026 LaSalle and Bridgecore aim to create the south east’s leading mixed-activity employment hub, providing business accommodation, and a range of supporting amenities. Workspace Group has exchanged contracts for the acquisition of a former Mecca Bingo site in Wandsworth for £26.1m. The site, on Garratt Lane, comprises a vacant 43,000 sq ft bingo hall and 200 space car park, has been a long-term land assembly target for Workspace. It adjoins Workspace-owned Riverside, an existing 100,000 sq ft office and workshop building with a rent roll of £1.2m. The combined site provides nearly six acres of land with significant redevelopment potential, including residential. Helical Bar and Crosstree have agreed deals totalling almost 35,500 sq ft at The Bower, Old Street to CBS Interactive, an online content network provider, and Allegis Group, the UK subsidiary of a US recruitment company. CBS Interactive has taken the eighth and ninth floors of The Warehouse at The Bower, comprising 17,416 sq ft of space, at £60/ sq ft for 12 years, with a 20 month rent free period. Meanwhile, the third floor of The Warehouse has been let to Allegis Group, totalling 18,035 sq ft of space at £55.50/ sq ft for 15 years, with a 15 month rent free period. Previously agreed office tenants already signed up to take space in the building include luxury online fashion retailer, Farfetch, and global content marketing agency, John Brown Media. Other tenants at the scheme include restaurants Ceviche and Bone Daddies, GymBox and a 115-room Z Hotel. The first phase of the Bower is nearly complete, and the second phase will see the redevelopment of The Tower, increasing the existing block from 115,000 sq ft to 170,000 sq ft. The Bower totals 3.12 acres and is immediately adjacent to Old Street Roundabout. It was acquired by Helical Bar and Crosstree in December 2012 for £60.75m. On completion, The Bower will comprise over 310,000 sq ft of office space across three buildings, as well as around 100,000 sq ft of new and existing retail, leisure and hotel space. Hibernia REIT has pre-let 85,000 sq ft of Cumberland House, Dublin, to social media giant Twitter. Twitter will occupy all of the office accommodation in Cumberland House, with the exception of the fifth and sixth floors, with tenant-only break options after 12 and 15 years. It will pay initial rent of around €4.6m a year, equating to an average of €50/ sq ft for the office space. Hibernia acquired Cumberland House, a 112,000 sq ft office building, for €49m in March 2015 having initially provided a short-term loan secured on the property. As part of the agreement with Twitter, Hibernia will refurbish the entire building at a cost of up to €27m ahead of expected lease commencement in the second half of 2016. Bakery chain Greggs has agreed a deal for a new headquarters office in Newcastle. The company has signed a 10 year lease on a 30,715 sq ft building at Quorum Business Park, which is also home to Fabricom, Aesica, NCFE and British Engines. Quorum has seen more than 20 new businesses arrive on the park, occupying more than 500,000 sq ft of office space, since 2009. DURHAM £1.3M Harewood House, Bowburn North Industrial Estat Bowburn Planning authority: Durham County Job: Detail Plans Granted for office block Client: Mathewson Limited Developer: Alston Murphy Associates, Groat Market, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Tyne & Wear, NE1 1UG Tel: 0191 230 2930 Property giant SEGRO has signed a deal with the Mayor of London to redevelop 86 acres of industrial land in east London. The sites spanning Newham, Barking & Dagenham and Havering will be turned into urban logistics and light industrial spaces over the next ten years with SEGRO planning to invest £180m. The sites are known collectively as East Plus and sit on both sides of the A13 corridor. Work will see five sites rejuvenated to contain 1.4 million sq. ft. of new urban logistics and light industrial spaces. Bouygues UK has staged another major contract coup by securing the £100m headquarters development for Cambridge University’s Exam Board. The French contracting giant’s UK arm has beaten shortlisted rival Balfour Beatty to build a five-storey complex, known as the Triangle, covering an area the size of three-and-a-half football pitches. Earlier this month Bouygues also beat Balfour to secure the UK’s biggest building contract for phase three of the vast Battersea Power Station development. The Triangle site in Cambridge will provide a new headquarters for Cambridge Assessment and its 3,000 staff. The 450,000 sq ft complex of linked buildings will also include a courtyard entrance and extensive green and outdoor spaces as well as a 39.1 m tower that will be a landmark when approaching Cambridge from the south of the city. Cheshire Fire Authority has contracted ISG to build a new fire station in Penketh, Warrington as part of a wider £22m deal. ISG has also been declared as Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service’s preferred contractor to build two other new stations in Lymm and Powey Lane, Mollington, close to the M56. These make a combined project value of around £16m. CAMBRIDGE £12.905m North Range Of Buildings New M, Free School Lane Planning authority: Cambridge Job: Detail Plans Granted for university student services centre (extension/alterations) Client: University of Cambridge Developer: Bennetts Associates, 1 Rawstorne Place, London, EC1V 7NL Tel: 020 7520 3300 BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 4 LONDON, Chiswick Community School,Burlington Lane £6m Planning authority: Hounslow Job: Detail Plans Granted for school Client: London Borough of Hounslow Developer: Tuffin Ferraby & Taylor, 65 Woodbridge Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4RD Tel: 020 3479 7777 YEOVIL £2.7m Wyndham Park Primary School, Cunningham Road Cabot Road Planning authority: South Somerset Job: Detail Plans Granted for school building Client: Somerset County Council Developer: Atkins, 2nd Floor The Octagon, Pynes Hill Court, Rydon Lane, Exeter, Devon, EX2 5AZ Tel: 01392 352900 NORTHAMPTON £4.3M Primary School Site, Primary School Site, Upton Valley Way East Swan Valley Planning authority: Northampton Job: Detail Plans Granted for school Client: Northamptonshire County Council Developer: Gotch, Saunders & Surridge LLP, 35 Headlands, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN15 7ES Tel: 01536 513165 GLASGOW £10.8m 366 Cathedral Street Planning authority: Glasgow Job: Detail Plans Granted for 370 student flats & 1 shop Client: Logan Factoring & Management Ltd/ Forrest Furnishing Ltd Developer: Urban Office Architects, 130 Stanley Street, Glasgow, Strathclyde, G41 1JH Tel: 0141 429 5918 Plans have been submitted to turn Tarmac’s former Wolverhampton headquarters into an 800-pupil free school. Under the plan The British Sikh School will occupy the 29-acre plot in Ettingshall, which it will share with Wolverhampton Vocational Training Centre which is also set to move to the disused Tarmac site in 2016. McCarthy & Stone has upped its investment plans by £500m to £2.5bn over the next four years. The increase comes as the retirement homes specialist saw pre-tax profit rise to £88.4m in the year to August 31 2015 from £63.2m as turnover grew to £485.7m from £387.8m. The firm acquired 90 new development sites last year and currently has a land bank of 10,087 plots. Final proposals have been submitted to build a £72m community hospital built in East Lothian. The planning submission to East Lothian Council sets out detail of the plan to build on the existing Roodlands site in Haddington, with construction hoped to start in late 2016. Hilton Awassa Resort & Spa, Ethiopia Announced for 2020. In partnership with Sunshine Business PLC, up to $42million will be invested in developing the 30,000 square metre Hilton Awassa Resort & Spa, with construction expected to begin later this year. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced the signing of a dual branded hotel development in Munich, Germany. The two hotels - Holiday Inn Munich City - East and Holiday Inn Express Munich City - East will operate under a franchise agreement with Primestar Hotel Group. Due to open in early 2018, the 189-room Holiday Inn Express Munich City - East hotel will be a 'next generation' Holiday Inn Express hotel, featuring the latest technology, an Express Café and Bar and larger cosier beds in the rooms. Meanwhile the 118-room Holiday Inn Munich City - East hotel will feature the brand's signature Open Lobby, as well as state-of-theart conference facilities with multi-functional meeting rooms, an all-day dining restaurant and bar, as well as a gym and sauna. With both hotels in the same building, the dual branded model allows for operational efficiencies through shared team members and facilities such as meeting space, leisure and fitness facilities and back of house areas. Best Western Hotels & Resorts announced at its annual convention the launch of its seventh brand GLō. GLō is a broad-midscale new construction brand that offers a hip, boutique-style experience for savvy travelers who expect the best in value, design and comfort. GLō is the latest addition to Best Western Hotels & Resorts growing family of brands. Each brand is positioned to serve the varying needs of today's business and leisure travelers. The family of brands is comprised of Best Western Premier®, BW Premier Collection®, Best Western Plus®, Best Western Plus Executive Residency®, Vīb, GLō and Best Western®. Carlson Rezidor continues to strengthen its presence in Africa, the company’s most important growth market. At the African Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF), the group announced the first Radisson Blu Residence in Nairobi/Kenya: the property with 123 units will be located adjacent to the State House and welcome the first guests in late 2016. It is Carlson Rezidor’s third project in Nairobi and at the same time the group’s fifth Radisson Blu residence in Africa – a growing segment that will be deployed further in capital cities across the continent. Carlson Rezidor’s total portfolio in 27 countries in Africa now features 65 hotels (30 hotels with 6,700 rooms in operation and 35 hotels with 7,600 rooms under development). The group steadily delivers its leading pipeline: in 2015, eight hotels were opened in Africa; three of them even on the same day. Carlson Rezidor also made its entrance to the Indian BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 5 Ocean with two resort openings in Mauritius. Five further openings are expected till year-end – among them Radisson Blu flagships in Lomé/Togo, Maputo/Mozambique and Nairobi/Kenya as well as the first Park Inn by Radisson in Nigeria. From the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hospitality leader Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. have announced aggressive expansion in Africa and Indian Ocean, increasing its market penetration across the region. Today the company has a strong footprint with 34 operating hotels and a robust pipeline of 20 hotels under development. With the expansion of its luxury, upper upscale and mid-market brands, Starwood will grow its portfolio by over 50% in the next five years, with more than 50 hotels operating and nine out of its 10 compelling lifestyle brands flying their flag in the region. Reaffirming its commitment to growth in the region, the company announced seven new deals including W Sharm El Sheikh and The Residences at W Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt), Sheraton Bamako (Mali), The Westin Abuja and Residences (Nigeria), Four Points by Sheraton Abuja and Residences (Nigeria), Four Points by Sheraton Nairobi Airport (Kenya), Aloft Dakar (Senegal), and Element Oyster Bay Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). With the new signings Starwood will further build its position in Nigeria and Egypt, increase its presence in Senegal and enter new markets, which include Mali, Kenya and Tanzania. W Sharm El Sheikh and The Residences at W Sharm El Sheikh W Hotels Worldwide will make its much anticipated entry into Egypt with W Sharm El Sheikh and Residences scheduled to open in 2020. Owned by Tower Prestige for Hotels SAE, the hotel with 350 stylish guest rooms and suites will be located at Nabq Bay in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El Sheikh. It will also feature 50 branded residences with a dedicated Resident’s Lounge. Sheraton Bamako Hotel Starwood’s largest and most globally recognized brand, Sheraton, will foray into Mali in West Africa with Sheraton Bamako Hotel. Scheduled to open in early 2017, the hotel is owned by Koira Hotel Investment S.A. Boasting 200 modern rooms. The Westin Abuja and The Residences With its distinct and winning approach to wellbeing, Starwood is gaining traction to grow Westin in gateway cities and in resort destinations. Home to 389 contemporary guest rooms and suites and scheduled to open in 2022, the hotel will also feature 194 branded residences with access to hotel facilities. In partnership with Century Health and Hospitalities Limited, the project also includes a Four Points by Sheraton Hotel with branded residences. Four Points by Sheraton Abuja and The Residences A part of the mixed use development project owned by Century Health and Hospitalities Limited, Four Points by Sheraton Abuja will feature 212 spacious and contemporary guest rooms including suites and 150 branded residences with access to hotel facilities. With the two projects together Starwood will add over 600 rooms. Four Points by Sheraton Nairobi Airport The 194-room Four Points by Sheraton Nairobi Airport will mark Starwood’s entry into Kenya. Owned by AirMarc Ltd the hotel will be operated under a franchise arrangement. Aloft Dakar Starwood is set to debut leading edge design and accessible technology into Africa with Aloft Dakar. Located close to the airport, the hotel with 150 loft-like rooms is scheduled for a 2018 opening and is owned by Vacances Cap Skiring VACAP SA, who also own the Sheraton Dakar Hotel, currently under development. Element Oyster Bay Dar-es-Salaam Element will debut in Africa with the 105 all-suite Element Oyster Bay Dar-es-Salaam. The hotel will not only mark the debut of Element brand into Africa but will also be Starwood’s first hotel in Tanzania in East Africa. Owned by Opulent Hotel Group, the hotel will be operated under a franchise arrangement and is scheduled to open in 2018. 2015/2016 Opening highlights Starwood will open 7 hotels in the next year, including: Opening of Four Points by Sheraton Oran in November marking the entry of the brand into Algeria followed by Four Points by Sheraton Ikot Ekpene (Nigeria) in 2016. Opening of The Westin Soma Bay Golf Resort & Spa, after conversion which marks the entry of the brand into Egypt, followed by opening of a new Westin in Cairo, The Westin Katameya Dunes, in early 2016, further strengthening the Westin brand presence and consolidating Starwood’s position as a leading hospitality player in Egypt. The debut of Starwood’s ultra-luxury brand St. Regis in Egypt with opening of The St. Regis Cairo in 2016. Re-opening of the iconic Sheraton Cairo after extensive renovation in 2016. Opening of Sheraton Conakry, marking the entry of the brand and Starwood’s first hotel in Guinea Wyndham Hotel Group recently announced plans to expand its Ramada brand in Malaysia with the signing of a franchise agreement with Mah Sing Group for a 322-key property in Johor Bahru. Ramada Encore Meridin Johor Bahru is scheduled to open in 2018 less than a kilometre from Legoland Malaysia, a popular international family theme park. It will feature studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments and, upon opening, will join two other Ramada properties currently operating in the Malaysian cities of Kuala Lumpur and Melaka. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. has announced an agreement with Belgrade Waterfront LLC to debut the W brand in Serbia with the opening of W Belgrade and The Residences at W Belgrade. Scheduled to open in 2019, W Belgrade will feature 120 guest rooms and suites. BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 6