Global hotel operator Marriott International is set to open its first hotel in SA in the upmarket Melrose Arch precinct.
The Amdec group will develop the five-star 150-room Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch as it looks to compete with hotels in Sandton and Rosebank and offer mid-size conferencing facilities similar to those found at the Sandton Convention Centre and the Birchwood Conference Centre in Boksburg.
Amdec is also developing Marriott Executive Apartments Johannesburg Melrose Arch, which will comprise 200 apartments with hotel services.
Amdec CEO James Wilson said these would largely serve business people who were on three- and six-month or longer work visits.
Soon after the opening of the hotel and apartment property in mid-August 2018, Amdec will open three Marriott-branded hotels in Cape Town. Marriott International president and CEO Arne Sorenson said this signalled a vote of confidence in SA’s tourism markets.
Amdec, which has positioned itself as Marriott’s main South African development partner, is injecting R3bn into developing the properties.
As much as R1bn will be spent on the two Melrose Arch developments and R2bn will be spent on the Cape hotels.
“We are proud to pave the way for Marriott International’s growth plans in Africa and help to open up new markets for this leading hotel company and its many loyal guests from around the globe,” said Wilson.
The five developments are expected to create about 8,000 building-related jobs, while under construction and nearly 800 new sustainable hospitality jobs, which will be created on completion.
As many as 470 of these will be in the three new Cape Town hotels and 320 in the two Johannesburg properties.
The hotel and executive serviced apartment projects in Melrose Arch are part of an expansion of the mixed-use precinct.
The expansion also includes One on Whiteley, a R450m residential development under construction. Melrose is also adding Rolex, Rolls Royce and McLaren stores to its specialised retail offering as well as the first Jamie Oliver restaurant in SA. Jamie’s Italian will open next month.
The three new hotels in Cape Town are Marriott Hotel Foreshore, Residence Inn by Marriott, also on the foreshore, and AC Hotel Cape Town Waterfront, which is in Roggebaai.
Alex Kyriakidis, Marriott International president and MD for the Middle East and Africa, said he expected the new hotels to perform well, largely thanks to how Marriott would market SA to its rewards members.
“These new developments enable us to market SA to our loyalty members more effectively. It’s also high time we opened Marriott hotels in this country,” he said.
source: Business Day