Kwek launches ‘cool’ Studio M hotel brand

Source : Straits Times – 12 Nov 2009

PROPERTY tycoon Kwek Leng Beng launched an ‘utterly cool’ hotel brand boasting a Singapore label yesterday. He aims to have at least 50 outlets across the world in five years.

The Studio M in Singapore brand is being unleashed through the Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (M&C) chain with the first to open at 3, Nanson Road in the Robertson Quay area around April next year.

Singapore could eventually have three to five Studio Ms, which Mr Kwek describes as a ‘cross-breed between a boutique hotel and the normal type of hotels’.

The brand will cater to mostly savvy business and leisure travellers but not tour groups, said Mr Kwek, who is executive chairman of Hong Leong Group, the parent of M&C.

Studio M outlets have been earmarked for the Middle East, India, China, Vietnam and possibly Britain – through management contracts and ownership.

The debut hotel at Nanson Road will cost $120 million and will be built on a site Hong Leong bought in late 2006. It paid $45.8 million, or $518 per sq ft of potential gross floor area, in the tender.

The hotel will have 365 rooms with interiors and open-air tropical decks designed by Italian architect Piero Lissoni.

‘It is chic, stylish, and you don’t have to pay a bomb for it,’ said Mr Kwek. ‘It is like a five-star hotel, but you pay four-star rates.’ Rates have not been finalised, but a room will likely cost $230 to $250 a night, he said.

Mr Kwek described the Studio M brand as ‘utterly cool’ and a ’21st century new generation type of hotel’ that will boast the best technology and pack efficiency into mostly standard rooms of 270 sq ft.

He hatched the idea of creating a new hotel brand about four years ago, and said the brand will fill a gap in the market here. There is increasing demand from business travellers who want a distinctive and unique experience from their hotel in addition to functional services such as wireless connectivity, he said.

Room rates here have fallen this year, and while the hotel market is not as good as in pre-crisis days, Mr Kwek said it is set to improve.

‘It is my belief that the IRs (integrated resorts) will bring different types of customers here,’ he said, adding that a second Studio M could be built within the next 12 months.

A likely venue is the sleepy Orchard Hotel Shopping Arcade. Mr Kwek said they are studying the possibility of converting it into a Studio M.

He also believes the central business district and the Bukit Timah area could support Studio M outlets. And as if Studio M is not enough, Mr Kwek wants to create another hotel chain as ‘the world is running out of brands’.

Creating another brand will allow M&C to leverage on its vast experience in running hotels across the world.