Hyatt returns to JB as Hyatt Place

When I learnt that the Hyatt hotel brand will be coming back to Johor Baru, I wanted to witness the signing of the management agreement between key representatives of Hyatt and WCT Holdings Berhad.

Model of Hyatt Place hotel next to the Paradigm Residence

This was very exciting news because the Hyatt Place Johor Baru will be developed within Paradigm Mall Johor Baru and set to open in 2022.

The hotel will be part of the 13-acre integrated development that includes the Paradigm Mall Johor Baru and the soon-to-be-launched Paradigm Residence.

Hyatt Place Johor Baru will feature 200 guestrooms, a café, swimming pool, fitness centre and more than 225 square meters of meeting space.

Dato' Lee Tuck Fook [Right] and Partick Finn [Left]
signing the management agreement.

At the recent event held at Paradigm Mall Johor Baru, this was announced by Hyatt when they entered into a management agreement with a subsidiary of WCT Holdings Berhad to develop a Hyatt Place hotel in Johor Baru.

Hyatt’s Group President, Asia Pacific, David Udell, said that Paradigm Mall JB offers an ideal locale for Hyatt Place JB and will provide professionals and leisure travelers with a relaxed, quality hotel experience in a prime leisure, retail and dining hub.

Hyatt Place Johor Bahru is described as an “upscale select service hotel” that will offer casual hospitality and purposeful service in a smartly designed, high-tech and contemporary environment.

Holding up their signed agreements for show!

In a brief but significant signing ceremony, the agreement was signed by Group Managing Director of WCT Holdings, Dato’ Lee Tuck Fook, and Hyatt’s Senior Vice President, Real Estate and Development for Asia Pacific, Patrick Finn.

“We are delighted to work with Hyatt as well as to embrace and integrate the Hyatt Place brand’s unique approach to hospitality with our retail mall and residential components,” said Dato’ Lee.

“Given the prospects and business vibrancy of Johor Bahru, we are confident that this new hotel will be well received by Johoreans as well as business and leisure travelers from various parts of Malaysia and from Singapore,” he added.

A handshake to seal their agreement

Opened in late 2017, the seven-storey Paradigm Mall JB has more than 500 retail shops operating on 1.3 million square feet of retail space and has 4,200 carpark bays.

Situated within a 10-minute drive from Johor Bahru city centre, the hotel will have direct access to major highways including the Skudai Highway, Pasir Gudang Highway, North-South Highway and the Second Link Expressway to/from Singapore.

“We are thrilled to see the growing interest in this versatile select-service brand among owners and developers in Malaysia and we continue to grow our distribution in the region and provide more diverse experiences for our guests,” said Finn.

The model of the building shows
 the position of the Hyatt Place hotel

He continued, “Hyatt Place Johor Bahru in Paradigm Mall will reinforce our growing portfolio in Malaysia as we look to double the number of Hyatt hotels here over the next few years.”

The opening of Hyatt Place Johor Baru in 2022 will join more than 335 Hyatt Place locations in Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Germany, Honduras, India, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Thailand, The Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States.

Headquartered in Chicago, the Hyatt Hotels Corporation is a leading global hospitality company with a portfolio of 19 premier brands. As of March 31, 2019, its portfolio includes more than 850 properties in over 60 countries across six continents.

Founded in 1981, WCT Holdings Berhad owns five shopping malls/centres, namely Bukit Tinggi Shopping Centre in Klang, the airport malls – gatewar@klia2 and SkyPark Terminal 3 in Selangor, Paradigm Mall in Petaling Jaya and Paradigm Mall in Johor Bahru.

For more info about Hyatt Place hotels, visit website: hyattplace.com

For more info about WCT, visit website: www.wct.com.my