Second Raffles for Singapore

Main Photo: Set to open in 2022, the new Raffles Sentosa Resort & Spa Singapore will feature 61 villas, each with its own private swimming pool.Photo: Yabu Pushelberg 

Date: July 2019

Location: Sentosa, Singapore

Name: Raffles Sentosa Resort & Spa – opening 2022

No. of Keys: 61 Vilas

Seller: TBA

Buyer: Accor has signed to add a second Raffles hotel in Singapore. The project will be built alongside the Sofitel in Sentosa, reports the Straits Times.

Developer Royal Group will create an all-villa resort. The original Raffles hotel in Singapore, which opened more than 100 years ago, is due to reopen after refurbishment, this coming August (2019).

Royal Group, headed up by Bobby Hiranandani, owns hotels in Singapore as well as The InterContintal Sydney Double Bay and the DoubleTree by Hilton, Kuala Lumpur.

The proposed all-villa resort will feature 61 villas, each with its own private swimming pool, set in a 1,000,000 sq ft property, the equivalent of approximately 17 football fields. Royal Group, which owns SO Sofitel Singapore and Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa, will build the new Raffles resort on land adjacent to the existing Sofitel on Sentosa.

Managing director of Royal Group Peter Wilding, said during a press conference on Tuesday that the hotel will be a new interpretation of the iconic Raffles brand.

“We did a lot of work in studying luxury resorts in Singapore and in Sentosa and we found that there is demand from tourists that want to stay in exclusive luxury resorts with that aspect of privacy and security. If we didn’t launch this new villa hotel, we would be losing those tourists to other parts of Asia.”

He added that the resort will be the first villa-only hotel in Singapore.

Design studio Yabu Pushelberg, founded by Canadian designer George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, designed the resort, including the landscaping, lighting and interiors. The firm previously worked on luxury hotels including the Four Seasons Toronto and New York and St Regis Mexico City.

Prices of the villas have not yet been confirmed but in comparison, a suite at the Raffles Hotel costs between $1,300 and $12,000 per night.

Hotel facilities will include a bar, restaurants, a fitness centre, a celebrations room and two meeting rooms.

Meanwhile, Raffles Hotel closed in December 2017 for its most extensive restoration and renovation project since 1989. It will reopen in August this year with new suite categories, an upgraded ballroom as well as new and refreshed restaurants and bars.

The hotel, which was designated a national monument in 1987, has been managed by Accor Hotels since 2015 after the Paris-based chain signed a US$2.9 billion deal to buy out FRHI Holdings, which operates a string of hotels around the world under the Raffles, Fairmont and Swissotel brands.

THPT Comment: Raffles, synonymous with Singapore, is expanding with a very new look

First Seen: The Straits Times

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