Lotte Hotel Seattle to open in 2020

Hotel Lotte, which garnered attention from the global hotel industry by acquiring the New York Palace hotel with 137 years of history in 2015, achieved another successful acquisition of a five-star hotel in Seattle, the largest city in the Northwest of the U.S. Hotel Lotte aims to target the U.S. market with the two hotels it acquired while positioning itself as a world-renowned hotel brand by expanding its global chain.

Hotel Lotte announced on Sunday that it concluded a deal on Tuesday to acquire a five-star hotel from U.S.-based private equity firm Stockbridge along with Hana Financial Investment. Hotel Lotte and Hana Financial Investment jointly participated in the 175-million-dollar acquisition deal. The hotel will be operated under its new name, “Lotte Hotel Seattle,” by the Korean hotel brand as a consigned manager starting June next year. This is the first time that a South Korean hotel company makes a joint investment with a financial institution and operates a hotel as a consigned manager.

Lotte Hotel Seattle has a total of 189 rooms from the first to the 16th floor in a 44-story office building. The hotel is located about 20 kilometers from the Tacoma International Airport and its interior was designed by well-known French designer Philippe Starck. Hotel Lotte explained that the newly-acquired hotel also has historical values as the annex building that features meeting rooms and banquet halls was renovated from the first United Methodist Church in the U.S.

As Seattle houses headquarters of large global companies, such as Starbucks, Microsoft Corporation, and Amazon.com, business customers will be the main target. “As the hotel welcomes the members of international companies, it will serve as an opportunity to promote Lotte’s brand,” said a member of Hotel Lotte. “We will work to attract more tourists as well.”

Hotel Lotte is operating 11 hotels in the U.S., Russia, Japan, and Vietnam as a direct or consigned manager and plans to expand its global chain going forward. The first hotel, with which the South Korean company made overseas expansion, was Lotte Hotel Moscow in 2010. Another leading hotel of South Korea, Hotel Shilla, is also expanding its global footprint by entering the U.S. and Vietnamese markets.

The combined domestic and overseas sales of Hotel Lotte is expected to record one trillion won for the first time this year, which will be the first record set by any South Korean hotel brand. “Entering the Seattle market following Lotte New York Palace, we are now standing on a par with renowned global hotel brand,” said Hotel Lotte CEO Kim Hyun-sik. “We will strengthen our position as a global hotel corporation with more aggressive expansion.”


Seng-Hyun Kang byhuman@donga.com