Latest HITs: MOHG adds in London; casino hotel for Philly; Mast moves in Tampa

MOHG adds in London. Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group will open its third London hotel in 2028. Situated on London's South Bank, Mandarin Oriental Bankside will be part of the larger Bankside Yards development, which serves to reconnect the space between the Tate Modern and Blackfriars Station and is centred around the historic railway arches that run through the heart of the site. The overall property is being developed by an international real estate consortium including Hotel Properties Limited, Native Land Limited and Amcorp Properties Berhad. The development will comprise a contemporary standalone building, expected to have 171 guestrooms and 70 branded Residences at Mandarin Oriental. The property will benefit from the wider Bankside Yards development plan to be the UK's first operationally fossil fuel-free major mixed-use development.

Casino hotel for Philly. Rivers Casino Philadelphia will open a 62-suite boutique hotel inside The Battery, the mixed-use lifestyle campus underway on Beach Street in Fishtown. The new casino hotel will be called “Riversuites” and will occupy four dedicated floors of The Battery’s existing adaptive reuse complex, creating a waterfront hotel. The hotel is expected to open by year-end 2023 and represents a $7 million privately funded investment. Riversuites will be operated by Rivers Casino Philadelphia, which is owned and operated by Rush Street Gaming and its affiliates. Koo Architecture of Chicago is designing the Riversuites hotel. Strada of Philadelphia is the architect for The Battery. Guest suites are cavernous by hotel standards, averaging 854 square feet each, with even larger options up to 2,266 square feet. Every suite includes a full kitchen. Several apartment-style suites feature patios or bi-level lofts. Today, The Battery is a $154 million redevelopment initiative currently underway by its Philadelphia-based owner, Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds. The active phase includes 173 apartments, 135,000 square feet of office space and 100,000 square feet of event space — and now a hotel.

Project approved for Melbourne. Melbourne property developer Capital Alliance has announced the approval of the planning permit for its $340 million dual hotel project in partnership with Australia's International Hotel Group, TFE Hotels. The permit for the mixed-use lifestyle development in Melbourne’s Docklands precinct allows Capital Alliance to proceed with plans for a state-of-the-art 1000-pax capacity conference center - one of the largest in Australia - and dual hotels featuring Australia's largest rooftop infinity pool. The project features the 200-room Collection by TFE Hotels brand and the 105-room A by Adina. This project is the fourth mixed-use hotel development for Capital Alliance.

Mast Capital moving forward in Tampa. Florida real estate investment and development firm Mast Capital has received county approval to move forward its redevelopment plans to further enhance and reimagine the Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa's Wesley Chapel neighborhood. Mast Capital will move forward with plans to develop a new town center with a mix of uses that will add 465 rental apartments, 25 townhomes, 75,000 square feet of retail and office space, and a pedestrian promenade. It will also build a 120-unit townhome community and 25,000 square feet of commercial space, along with an extensive renovation of the resort, golf course and lifestyle amenities. The news comes over a year after Mast Capital, in partnership with Amzak Capital, acquired the 480-acre property in March 2022, with the goal of restoring the asset. Founded in 1981, the property is currently home to a 500-key, condo-hotel resort, over 40 tennis courts, six pickleball courts, two Arnold Palmer-designed 18-hole golf courses, over 100,000 square feet of meeting space, and Saddlebrook Prep tennis and golf academy.

District buys Westin. District Hospitality Partners, a privately held hospitality investment group that owns properties nationwide, has acquired from Crescent Real Estate LLC the 225-room Westin Annapolis in Maryland. The property underwent a comprehensive renovation in 2020 and District Hospitality is planning a significant renovation to the bar, restaurant, and lobby. HEI Hotels & Resorts will continue to manage the asset. Eastdil Secured served as the debt placement advisor, and Wells Fargo provided the financing.

Langham grows new brand. Langham Hospitality Group, Hong Kong, has signed an agreement to manage a 251-room Ying’nFlo in Admiralty, Hong Kong. This new property is scheduled to open in September 2023. The new property follows the debut of the Ying’nFlo concept which launched in Wanchai, Hong Kong, in October 2022. A renovation plan will include a soft upgrade of all the guest rooms as well as the installation of the House of Ying’nFlo lifestyle hub. It will also introduce the brand’s lifestyle café restaurant in the first quarter of 2024.

ECE adds in Italy. ECE Real Estate Partners, Hamburg, Germany, will launch its first residential development project in Italy with a planned 160 apartments in six buildings set for 2026 in Rome. The investment amounts to more than e65 million. Also in Rome, ECE Work & Live is currently converting a former office building into a hotel which will be managed by the Ruby Hotels brand. In Venice, the hotel fund launched by ECE Real Estate Partners is investing in the modernization and repositioning of a hotel. In addition, ECE Marketplaces in Italy operates a total of four shopping centers in Rome, Verona, Chieti, and Pompei.

Far East selling in Australia. Hong Kong’s Far East Consortium is working to sell The Ritz-Carlton, Melbourne and The Ritz-Carlton, Perth.  McVay Real Estate and CBRE Hotels have been appointed to steer the portfolio sale, providing an opportunity to acquire a combined 462 luxury hotel rooms managed by Marriott International. Opened in March 2023, The Ritz-Carlton, Melbourne mixed-use development is one of the highest hotels in the southern hemisphere, comprising 257 guest rooms. It was developed as part of Far East Consortium’s West Side Place project. The 205-room Ritz-Carlton, Perth opened in 2019 as the first Ritz Carlton in Australia in over 25 years and as the centerpiece of Far East Consortium’s mixed-use apartment development The Towers.

Margaritaville heading to Tahoe. Margaritaville plans to open its first mountain resort, the Margaritaville Resort Lake Tahoe, at the end of this year. Margaritaville is reflagging the Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel in South Lake Tahoe, California. The hotel is currently undergoing a multimillion-dollar revamp. The 399-room property is expected to debut as a Margaritaville resort in time for the 2023-2024 ski season. The Margaritaville Resort Lake Tahoe will be the flag's fourth hotel in the Western U.S.

Brittain adds CDO. Management company Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, added Christy Jernigan as chief development officer. Jernigan has more than 20 years of industry experience, most notably serving as the vice president of business development at Aimbridge Hospitality. Prior to that, she spent five years at Remington Hotels in various operational roles. Her primary focus will be expanding Brittain's third-party management platform by sourcing new deals, acquiring properties and spearheading efforts to expand the network of investment partners.

US demand grows in Europe. European travel recovery continued in the second quarter of 2023, owing to high consumer demand despite stubborn inflation and increasing travel costs, according to the European Travel Commission. The U.S. proves to be the strongest long-haul source market to Europe to date this year as Europe’s tourism reached about 95% of 2019 levels of international tourist arrivals. Recent data up to May shows that value-for-money destinations are performing well, with Serbia (+27%), Bulgaria (+21%), Montenegro (+12%) and Türkiye (+9%) among those leading the recovery. Most recent data shows that 52% of reporting destinations have surpassed pre-pandemic levels of U.S. tourist arrivals so far this year. Southern Mediterranean destinations such as Portugal (+79%), Türkiye (+78%), and Montenegro (+43%) have reported substantial growth in arrivals from the U.S. market. In Eastern Europe, Latvia (+135%) and Poland (+51%) also recorded significant arrivals growth from the U.S.