St. Regis to Open Resort: Bali

Major international hotel chain St. Regis is hoping that its first resort and residences in Asia, which is currently being built in Bali, will be able to open in July next year.

Located in Nusa Dua, Bali, on a site of 8.8 hectares belonging to the Bali Tourism Development Corporation (BTDC), the luxurious St. Regis Resort and Residences will have 81 hotel suites, 41 resort villas and 14 residences, with the villas and residences available for purchase as a Business News article explains.

Erhard Hotter, the hotel operations CEO of PT Rajawali Corpora, the developer of the resort, said that the strong points of the Bali resort included its proximity to the beach, and outstanding architecture and interior design in keeping with St. Regis’ standards.

“For example, a hotel suite measures nearly 100 square meters. We offer the most space compared to the others,” he said at the launch of the resort property sales in Jakarta.

The resort will also be equipped with swimming pools, spa, restaurants and bars, and business center, and will have the Bali Golf and Country Club as its immediate neighbor.

Hotel room rates will range from US$400 to $3,000, while the prices of villas will start at US$700,000, and those of residences at $1.27 million.

Rajawali general manager for sales and marketing Aswin Widjanarko said that a number of villas and two of the most expensive residences, priced at $2.2 million each, were sold during the launch of the sales in Hong Kong and Singapore earlier this year.

He added that resort villa owners would enjoy a guaranteed 7 percent annual return on their investment for the first three years and 40 percent of aggregate annual gross room rental revenue thereafter.

“We’ve seen that people are very interested in buying our products, although many still prefer to wait and see,” said Aswin, adding that St. Regis would hold an exhibition for the still under-construction Bali resort and residences in the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Jakarta, this weekend.

“Construction will be completed by March 2008,” said Hotter.

St. Regis is a subsidiary of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc., which is also the holding company for other well-known hotel brands, including Sheraton, Westin and LeMeridien.

St. Regis, which opened its first hotel in New York in 1904, currently operates 12 hotels, resorts and residences, including ones in Aspen, Beijing, London, Rome and San Fransisco. It is also developing nine others, including ones in Bali, Singapore, and Mexico City.