Restaurant operator Toplus Global Co (御頂國際集團) has signed a deal to lease basement space at the former site of the Westin Taipei (台北威斯汀六福皇宮) and turn it into banquet facilities.
Toplus Global, which owns the upscale seafood restaurant brand Ding Xian (頂鮮餐廳) and the Amazing Hall (晶宴 會館) banquet facilities, is to lease 1,800 ping (5,950m2) of floor space from the landlord, Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽).
The deal ended speculation about the fate of the underground floors at the site after Japan’s JR Hotels Group in November last year agreed to open a new hotel on the floors above ground, but refused to take up the basement space on concerns that the nation’s aging population is unfavorable for the banquet business.
Toplus Global holds a different view and aims to open banquet rooms that can seat 110 tables priced at NT$14,000 (US$465) each on weekdays and NT$18,000 at weekends, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday.
The strategy would make the planned restaurant more affordable than similar facilities at established five-star hotels in Taipei, the report said.
Toplus Global operates three Ding Xian outlets and eight wedding halls nationwide.
The group plans to spend NT$50 million renovating the basement space in Songshan District (松山) that could become the nation’s first Japanese-style banquet hall, the report said.
Japanese have become the largest source of tourist arrivals since September last year, after Beijing in August imposed a ban on independent tourists visiting Taiwan, lending support to the strategy, Toplus Global said.
The new banquet facility, scheduled to begin operations by the end of this year, would also seek to meet demand for conference and meeting facilities, it added.
Toplus Global declined to elaborate on the rent, which the report said would be NT$1.5 million to NT$1.8 million a month.
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