A listed former NatWest bank building on Piccadilly is being converted into central London’s latest £1,000 a night super-luxury hotel opposite the Ritz.
Singaporean property billionaire Asok Kumar Hiranandani’s Royal Group of Companies is investing around £110 million in its first London site.
The company bought the former NatWest Bank building at 63-65 Piccadilly for £65 million last month and plans to spend another £45 million to turn the 102 year old Grade II listed Portland stone classical property into a luxury boutique hotel with 50 suites.
The purchase was handled by London investment advisers Michael Elliott
Hiranandani told Forbes Asia he had been looking for a site in London for the past decade. In the interview he said there was room for a new luxury hotel in the West End because “London’s tourist arrivals are growing like crazy.”
The hotel on the corner of Albermarle Street within yards of the 119 year old Ritz London is being designed by Islington based architects Ritchie Design Partners with completion by the end of next year,
Hiranandani said he is confident the hotel can charge guests £1,000 pounds a night, similar to the room rates of the nearby Ritz London.
It will be the latest in an extraordinary “gold rush” of new five star openings in London starting with the launch of the capital’s first billion pound hotel, the Peninsula London at Hyde Park Corner in September 2023, closely followed by the £1.5 billion Raffles London at The OWO, the vast old War Office building in Whitehall.
This year will see the launch of the Chancery Rosewood in the former US embassy site while, Auberge Resorts will open its first UK hotel in the former In and Out Military Club at 94 Piccadilly, close to Royal Group’s proposed destination, the Waldorf Astoria Admiralty Arch, and IHG’s luxury Six Senses brand will make its UK debut in Bayswater.
Slightly further down the track, Indian hotel company Oberoi is coming to London for the first time by spring 2028 at Mayfair landlord Grosvenor’s South Molton development.
Hiranandani is ranked No. 28 on the list of Singapore’s 50 Richest with a net worth of $1.7 billion. Royal owns a number of hotels in Asia including the So Sofitel Singapore, doubletree by Hilton in Kuala Lumpur, and the Raffles Sentosa Resort and Spa Singapore.
