JKH & SANKEN to build a luxury hotel  in Colombo [September 02 2011]

Sanken Lanka (Pvt) Limited,and John Keells Holdings, signed a joint venture to invest Rs2.90b to build a 25 storey, 240 room Business Hotel in  Colombo .

Under the Joint Venture Sanken Lanka (Pvt) Limited will be the major shareholder and the main contractor for the project which will be on a Design and  Build basis with Design Team 3 of Singapore being the project Architects.  Keells Hotel Management Services Limited will be the hotel operator who will take over the management once the project is completed. The Hotel would offer state of the art modern in room guest facilities, including a 160 pax restaurant on the 24th Floor with a roof top swimming pool, bar, open air lounge and gym facilities offering a panoramic view of the city. The construction would take approximately 33 months to complete.

JKH will launch a new brand in six months which will convey the efficiency of a conventional value brand whilst offering a design of a chic boutique business Hotel.  Deputy Chairman, John Keells Holdings, Ajit Gunewardene said  “Based on our long term strategy, we believe that Colombo requires an efficient, modern business hotel offering ultra-comfort with efficient services at a competitive price for the business traveller. This project would be just the start in taking our strategy forward while adding to and complementing our brand portfolio. Our goal in the medium term would be to develop a capacity of around 1,000 rooms in this segment”.

The City of Colombo currently has a room capacity of approximately 500 – 600 rooms in the 3 star and lower categories which are inadequate given the expected surge in demand in business related travel in the next 2 to 3 years. The opportunity to attract a larger part of this segment specially the incentive traffic and conferences space in the sub-continent is immense.