Singapore’s Well Smart Picks Up $323M Sydney Hotel Project

Singapore-based Well Smart Investment Holdings is acquiring a Sydney hotel project from Chinese-owned developer ICD Property and local firm Belingbak with plans to repurpose the planned A$500 million ($323 million) hotel and residential tower as a hospitality-only development.

Controlled by Singapore-based Jack Jia, Well Smart is in the process of buying the 1,300 square metre (14,000 square foot) hotel site at 372 to 382A Pitt Street, according to market sources, with a report in The Australian putting an A$110 million ($71 million) price on the deal.

With Well Smart focusing on the hospitality sector, the Singapore firm is said to be dropping the apartment component, just months after picking up a Queensland island for a resort project.

Should the purchase of the central business district site go through, the project will add to the Singaporean firm’s Aussie hospitality portfolio less than two months after it divested its 472-key Novotel and ibis Melbourne Central Hotel in downtown Melbourne to another Singaporean player, Worldwide Hotels Group, for A$170 million.

Sky-High Hotel

Well Smart is paying the equivalent of A$384,615 per square metre for the site, which is about 8 percent less than Belingbak and ICD’s reported A$120 million asking price when their efforts to market the project were first covered in March.

While the deal has yet to close, the partners found a buyer roughly a year after obtaining approval from the Central Sydney Planning Committee for their redevelopment proposal for the project dubbed 372 Pitt.

ICD, a Melbourne-based builder owned by Chinese entrepreneur Michael Mai, and Belingbak estimated at the time that the 58-storey tower will cost A$500 million to build, including 297 hotel rooms and 30 luxury apartments, with the ground floor dedicated to retail use.

The site is located beside the 166-key Ibis Sydney World Square hotel and opposite the World Square shopping centre, with Hyde Park just a few blocks away.

Reports indicated CBRE and Knight Frank as having brokered the deal, but representatives of the two agencies declined to comment when contacted by Mingtiandi on Friday.

While the hotel will now be developed by a new team, ICD is busy working on a larger project a few blocks away at 194-204 Pitt Street to redevelop the City Tattersalls Club into a 50-storey tower with apartment, hotel and retail components.

A development application for the A$763 million megaproject, which ICD is taking on together with Singapore-listed First Sponsor Group, was approved in 2021 and is expected to be completed in 2026.

Aussie Hospitality Gains Traction

Well Smart, which owns at least four hotels and resorts across Australia, is taking on a new project in the country as it prepares to close on the divestment of its 472-key Novotel and ibis Melbourne Central Hotel in central Melbourne.

The company also made headlines in April this year with its purchase of the 136-hectare Lindeman Island in Queensland for A$10 million where it reportedly plans to “restore and upgrade” the former Club Med resort.

The company also owns the Mantra Club Croc at Airlie Beach in Queensland’s Far North, which it picked up for A$9 million in 2016, according to local media.

Well Smart’s Sydney hotel buy is part of a wave of Asian capital flowing into Australia’s hospitality sector.

Late last month, Invictus Developments acquired the former Bank of China Australian headquarters at 39 York Street in downtown Sydney for A$52.5 million, with plans to convert the office tower into a premium hotel.

Run by Chayadi Karim, son of Indonesian palm oil tycoon Bachtiar Karim, Singapore-based Invictus also in August spent A$25 million to buy the 50-key Inchcolm by Ovolo hotel in Brisbane’s Spring Hill suburb as the company strives to build an A$500-million Aussie hospitality portfolio.

In March, SGX-listed heavyweight City Developments Ltd agreed to acquire the 416-key Sofitel Brisbane Central hotel from Brookfield Asset Management for A$177.7 million.