Vancouver Sees Shangri-La Expansion
Asia Pacific’s leading luxury hotel group, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts,
reinforces its expansion outside Asia Pacific with a management agreement
for a five-star deluxe hotel in Vancouver, Canada in early 2008. The hotel
is being jointly developed by Vancouver based Peterson Investment Group and
Westbank Projects.The deluxe Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver will be strategically located one
block from the city’s premier business address at Burrard and West
Georgia Streets. Set in the heart of the city, the hotel is an easy walk
to all downtown offices, shopping, restaurants, theatres, the convention
centre, the world-famous Stanley Park, and a half a block from the
popular shopping district on Robson Street.
The hotel will occupy fifteen floors of a new 60-story landmark building,
the tallest in Vancouver with cutting edge architectural design. The
entire multi purpose complex will showcase innovative residential living,
a sculpture galleria ? curated by the Vancouver Art Gallery, high end
retail shopping, innovative live/work condominiums, unique restaurants
and the Shangri-La Hotel, all in all ‘the best of cosmopolitan West Coast
life’.
Contemporary styled, the hotel’s guest rooms and services are following
the operating philosophy of the “Horizon Club” floors, Shangri-La’s
exclusive retreat for discerning travellers, offering a host of special
amenities and privileges such as round-the-clock personal butler service,
express check-in and check-out services. The guestrooms averaging 550
square feet (approximately 55 square metres) will be amongst the largest
in Canada, while the standard rooms will incorporate three components to
deliver a suite-type concept with oversized bathrooms, bedrooms, and
living/working areas. In addition to the full array of Shangri-La
services and facilities including 24-hour room service, same day laundry
and valet service, satellite TV, data ports, wireless broadband internet
service, all rooms will have sensurround AV system and LCD monitors in
the living room and bathroom.
The Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver will provide a creative feature restaurant with outdoor seasonal dining, a lobby lounge serving light meals with a stool bar overlooking the Vancouver Art Gallery Public Art
Site, and a juice bar serving guests in the spa and pool area. The
hotel’s intimate function and private dining facilities will feature
three rooms with seating capacity for 25 to 75 people, a canopied
exterior terrace with access to the function rooms, library with
fireplace, and a 48 seat screening theatre.
Other major hotel facilities will include a business centre, extensive
fitness facilities including pilates and stretch area, a year-round
outdoor infinity pool, and whirlpool. Most importantly, Shangri-La’s
exclusive CHI Spa is expected to be the largest and most comprehensive
spa in Vancouver with more than 6,000 square feet (approximately 600
square metres).
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Commenting on the new hotel, Shangri-La’s Chief Executive Officer and
Managing Director, Giovanni Angelini said, “It is a wonderful opportunity
for Shangri-La to enter the North American market with this landmark
hotel and our dedicated partners. It is an important step in the group’s
expansion plans outside Asia Pacific to develop Shangri-La hotels in
international gateway cities around the world, targeting the prime North
American market plus the fast-growing outbound traffic from China and the
rest of Asia.”
Ian Gillespie, President of Westbank Projects added, “We selected
Shangri-La to manage the hotel due to the strength of their award-winning
brand and its reputation for service excellence and Asian hospitality.
The group will introduce our hotel to its loyal guests including its
rapidly growing Golden Circle membership and via its network of hotels
and worldwide sales offices. The appointment of Shangri-La reflects our
focus on becoming a major force in the hospitality industry.”
Peterson Investment Group and Westbank Projects have developed over $2
billion in projects consisting of over 3.8 million square feet of retail,
mixed use, residential and office developments. The group is one of the
most active integrated development companies on the westcoast of North
America. The product mix includes luxury condominiums, urban infill
housing, class A office space, neighbourhoold grocery anchored shopping centres, rental apartments and hotels.
Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts currently manages 42 hotels
in Australia, mainland China, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and the United Arab
Emirates with a room inventory of over 21,000. In addition, the group
has over 20 projects under development in Australia, mainland China,
India, Malaysia, Maldives, Oman, Qatar, Thailand and the United Arab
Emirates. For more information, please visit www.shangri-la.com.
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