Dubai: A plan to have a Regent brand hotel at Istithmar's mixed-use project Canal Point will not go ahead, Brussels-based hotel operator Rezidor that operates Regent hotels said yesterday.
Istithmar and Rezidor had announced last year that they had signed an agreement to have the region's first Regent hotel at Canal Point.
The whole project comprises a hotel, two residential towers, two office towers, a hospital operated by Thai healthcare company Bumrungrad and a wellness centre.
Istithmar had previously said the 80-storey luxury hotel would open in mid-2010. It said Regent was chosen "due to its Asian origin and its synergy with the Thai-Asian theme of the entire project."
A senior Rezidor official said the planned Regent hotel at Canal Point will now be developed somewhere else in the city as the project is facing a review.
"What is going to be at Canal Point is not determined yet. We are looking for an alternative site," Martin Rinck, executive vice-president and chief development officer, told Gulf News.
Rinck said his hotel group is still working with Istithmar to build a Regent hotel.
"At this point of time we are working with Istithmar," he said.
Rezidor operates three Radisson SAS hotels in the UAE. It has a total of 15 hotels in eight Middle Eastern countries.
The company has 12 hotels under development in several countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Egypt.
Like may international hotel chains, Rezidor is pushing its mid-market Park Inn brand to benefit from a shortage of budget hotels in the region.
It has contracts for two Park Inn properties in Saudi Arabia and one for Oman.
"On the Park Inn side we have 10 contracts under negotiation," Rinck said.
Rezidor expects to open between six and eight properties every year for the "foreseeable future."
