Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) said yesterday it had signed an agreement with My Humble House Hospitality Management Consulting Co (寒舍餐旅管理顧問) to operate a five-star hotel to be built on the A12 lot in the Xinyi District.
Shin Kong, the nation's second-largest life insurer after Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), will build an office and hotel complex on a 2,953 ping (9,745m2) piece of land located on Xinyi Road Sec. 4, a company release said yesterday.
The building, with a floor space of 24,000 ping, should be completed in mid-2010, the company said. In December Shin Kong said that it expected construction would finish by the end of 2009.
The hotel will have more than 200 rooms, along with banquet rooms, gyms, restaurants and other facilities, Shin Kong said.
SHERATON EXPERIENCE
Shin Kong Life appeared confident that My Humble House will be able to manage the hotel. It said the firm, which also runs Sheraton Taipei Hotel, posted a more than 10 percent increase in revenues for the first six months year-on-year.
The Sheraton will generate NT$2.2 billion (US$67.5 million) in revenue by the end of this year, the release said.
Multinational companies and foreign financial institutions will be targeted as tenants for the 21-story office building.
The life insurer bought A12, a government-owned land plot, in 2003 through a public bidding process for NT$3.69 billion, or NT$1.25 million per ping.
REAL ESTATE DEALS
Shin Kong has been making large land purchases in recent years.
In March of last year, it spent NT$6.34 billion, or NT$2.74 million per ping, on two residential parcels of state-owned land in downtown Taipei to develop into upscale apartments.
In July, it bought two office buildings from BenQ Corp (
Shin Kong and My Humble House first announced their possible collaboration on the Xinyi project late last year and inked a memorandum of understanding on Dec. 21.
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