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Shaza plans 30 hotels in 10 years

DUBAI — Shaza Hotels, a joint venture between Kempinsky Hotels and Guidance Financial Group, is planning to have "30 hotels either under development or open within 10 years," said its chief executive, Christopher Hartley.

The first hotel is set to open in Dubai within the next two years, in what will be an eight to 10-strong five-star hotel chain across the Middle East in the next three years. "A new build is being finalised and a joint announcement will be made in a few days," said Hartley.

The 220-room hotel to be built on Shaikh Zayed Road, past the Kempinsky Hotel, will be managed by Shaza and financed by a third party, he told Khaleej Times. He also said: "Dubai will most probably be the first (hotel) but Marrakech will probably not be far behind."

The hotel group is also launching projects in Doha, Muscat, Cairo, Jeddah, Bahrain, and Marrakech.

A "top-end" five-star hotel will be opened in Bahrain Bay and will be an owner-operator venture. In Cairo, Shaza has bought a plot of land on the Nile "in a very central location" on which it will build a 500-room hotel as part of a mixed-used development. The total deployment is projected to be $160 million.

In Marrakech, Shaza is in the final stages of buying a hotel and is carrying out due diligence. The deal should be finalised by the end of the month, he said. The hotel will be gutted and renovated to Shaza's own specifications and should reopen in about two years. Shaza is also close to finalising a land purchase in Jeddah.

There are also opportunities for the group in Mecca, Medina, Riyadh and Kuwait, said Hartley, as well as "in Kuala Lumpur, Istanbul, and Cogna in Turkey."