State-funded Taiwan Asset Management Co (TAMC, 台灣金聯資產管理) has partnered with a local hotel and restaurant operator to turn an idle building in Taitung County into a four-star hotel.
The move marked the asset manager’s foray into the hospitality industry, as it seeks to boost its overall financial proficiency while the nation’s nonperforming loans business shrinks.
Under the partnership, TAMC and Honeymoon Four Seasons Co (蜜月四季餐旅購) have agreed to spend NT$300 million (US$1 million) and NT$180 million respectively to transform a 10-story building into a resort hotel in Chihpen, Taitung, a joint statement yesterday said.
The hotel, tentatively named Century Hotel (金聯世紀大飯店), is expected to begin operations by the end of next year and could generate 7.5 percent in rental yields a year, TAMC president Chao Jung-fang (趙榮芳) told a press conference in Taipei.
“The joint venture is the best way to revitalize an idle asset that would have difficulty securing a buyer otherwise,” Chao said. “It is also a breakthrough for TAMC, which needs to tap new business income sources amid a dwindling [market for] non-performing loans.”
The asset manager, in which the government holds nearly an 82 percent stake, is tasked with disposals of real-estate collateral.
The partnership grants Honeymoon Four Seasons an 18-year lease to run the hotel, which will have 280 guestrooms, rooftop hot-spring facilities, dining, fitness, and conference rooms, and other modern amenities for both business and leisure travelers, Honeymoon Four Seasons manager Kevin Kao (高世杰) said.
The new hotel could create 500 job opportunities in Chihpen and increase local tourism revenues, the joint statement said.
Honeymoon Four Seasons now operates two hotels and six restaurants nationwide.
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