Title: HOTEL DEVELOPMENT IN RUSSIA
1HOTELDEVELOPMENT IN RUSSIA
- Cameron Sawyer, President
- GVA Sawyer
- Moscow
2Hotel development has been long neglected by
investors and developers working in the Russian
real estate. Primary reasons
- Relatively low level of yield, making hotel
development unattractive if carried out using the
same types of capital which have traditionally
been used for other kinds of Russian real estate
projects. - High cost of land in Moscow, the only market
known to most players in the Russian real estate
market, which can often not be tolerated in hotel
projects, which are more sensitive to land cost
than many other kinds of space. - The necessity, by the very nature of hotel
development, of wide geographical distribution of
activities, considered by most players to be an
overwhelming organizational obstacle.
3However, hotel development has recently come into
the spotlight in a big way. Why?
- Availability of very cheap capital for hotel
development, which creates leveraged returns for
investors equal to or surpassing those achievable
in other sectors. - Growing regional economies has finally made it
possible to consider geographically distributed
programs of development, which are necessary in
the hotel sector. - Recent spectacular operating results in the
Russian hotel sector have proven the depth of
demand for new hotel rooms.
4Hotel development differs significantly from
other kinds of real estate development, and is
much more complicated. Why?
- Hotels are highly technological and are the least
generic type of space. They must be
built-to-suit according to highly complex
standards of the particular operator, and in
close cooperation with the technical department
of the operator. This greatly complicates the
design and construction process - Hotels are more sensitive to location than office
projects, and are almost as sensitive to location
as retail projects. - Hotel must be distributed more widely
geographically by the nature of demand for hotel
rooms.
5Despite the obstacles, hotel development in
Russia has now captured the attention of
investors and developers. Several ambitious
programs have been announced
- The most serious and credible large-scale
expansion program comes from Accor, which has
allocated around 500 million Euros to spreading
their Ibis brand through Russia. An
experimental joint venture with a Samara-based
company, with additional financing from EBRD, has
three hotels in various stages of development. - Bonita Group, with a franchise from Best Western.
The company is planning to build under this brand
about 40 hotels in Russia including 10 hotels in
Moscow. - Menatep/ Marriot. Plans to build mid-range
hotels under the Courtyard brand appear to be
on hold after Menateps problems with Yukos.
However, one has recently been opened in Moscow. - Kempinksi - is focused on Moscow and St.
Petersburg in the category of 5-star hotels. Has
been attempting to develop a program of
three-star hotels in the regions. - South Africas Protea Hotels have its first hotel
nearing completion in Ekaterinburg, and is rumor
to be set to begin construction of the second of
a series of regional hotels, in Novosibirsk. The
company focuses also at such regional centers as
Krasnoyarsk, Samara, Perm, Nizhny Novgorod,
Chelyabinsk and Khabarovsk. Problems with the
Russian licensee of the brand Bazovy Element
have put this project on hold. - Russian Gold planed to develop the chain of
mid-scale hotel in regional capitals. However at
present the project status is unknown. - Rezidor in various local joint ventures. At
present the company develops the 3-star segment
under the Park Inn brand in regions. The first
Park Inn was opened in Ekaterinburg last year and
is bound to begin the construction of others in
Kazan, Kaliningrad and Ryazan. The list of
targeted cities includes Moscow, St. Petersburg,
Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk Ufa, Perm, Rostov on
Don etc.
6- But apart from three old hotels in the
vicinity of Sochi, operated under a Radisson
franchise, a newly-constructed Marriot hotel in
Samara and Park Inn in Ekaterinburg with Protea
hotel under construction there and GVA Sawyers
Novocity project under construction in
Novorossiysk, there are no hotels of
international standard under physical
construction in the regions. The contrast between
bold announcements of huge development programs
and very little actual construction reflects the
great difficulties in initiating and managing
projects in the Russian regions.
7GVA Sawyer, active in Russia since 1993 as office
and residential developers, has recently moved
into hotel development in a big way. Some
of our hotel projects
8Novocity, Novorossiysk. A multifunctional
complex of 110,000m2 on the seafront in the
center of Novorossiysk, Russias largest port.
The complex includes a Novotel hotel of 156
rooms, and an Ibis hotel of 100 rooms.
Operator Accor Group. Under construction.
Owner A joint venture including OOO Kesco and
GVA Sawyer.
9Gostinny Dvor, Moscow. A 220-room Novotel
hotel next to Red Square inside the shell of the
historic Gostinny Dvor building. Construction to
begin Fall, 2006. Operator Accor Group.
Owner a joint venture including the City of
Moscow, Torgovy Dom Shater, and GVA Sawyer.
10(No Transcript)
11Ligovsky Prospekt 54-56, St. Petersburg. A
300-room Ibis hotel in the center of St.
Petersburg quite close to the Moscow Railway
station. Built in two phases, the complex
includes 18,000m2 of office and retail space
besides the Ibis hotel. Operator Accor Group.
Under construction. Owner OOO Kesco.
12VOLGA, MoscowReconstruction of the existing
Volga hotel complex and new construction of
a mixed-use complex of international class
located at the crossroads of Dokuchaeva Lane
and Bolshaya Spasskaya str., close to the
Garden Ring Road, in the historical zone of
the Central Administrative District of Moscow.
The project comprises a 250-room three-star
hotel and Class B offices.
- Total area of the complex 43 520,0 sq.m, incl
- The hotel 15 550 sq.m
- Offices 14 550 sq.m.
- Volga is planned to be commissioned in 2009.
- Operator Rezidor SAS.
- Owner Torgovy Dom Shater
- Developer GVA Sawyer
13Other GVA Sawyer hotel projects
- Hotel Rocco Forte Prechistenskaya
- A 150-room ultra-luxury class hotel in the
immediate vicinity of the Kremlin. Operator
Rocco Forte Hotels. Owner a joint venture
including Torgovy Dom Shater, GVA Sawyer, Rocco
Forte Hotels.
14Conclusions
- Hotel development in Russia, particularly in the
Russian regions, where there is virtually no
supply of modern hotel rooms, and where economies
are growing rapidly, offer fantastic
opportunities. - Hotel development in Russia is complicated by the
necessity of forming efficient financial
structures, necessarily complicated. - Hotel development is more complicated than other
kinds of real estate development, because of the
complex demands of the operators and resulting
complexity of the design process. - Harmonizing the demands of international hotel
operators with local buildings codes can present
challenges. - The Russian regions offer the greatest
opportunities to hotel developers and investors.
But working in them is complicated because of the
great distance between them, and the
peculiarities of local legal and political
environments. These difficulties are reflected
in the huge gap between the large number of
announced development programs and the small
number of hotels actually under construction.