Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts has entered into an agreement with Mohammed Ibrahim Al Subeaei & Sons Investment Company (MASIC) to manage the Swissôtel Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia.
Planned to open in 2019, the property will be located in the MASIC Business Park development, the urban area’s commercial and residential district. Encompassing approximately 592,000 square feet of retail and office space, the project is developed by MASIC, one of the largest investment companies in Saudi Arabia.
The announcement marks Swissôtel’s and parent company FRHI Hotels & Resorts’ first venture into the eastern part of the country. The property is close to the city of Dhahran, as well as the U.S. consulate and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. The Eastern Province itself is a short distance from the Arabian Gulf and is linked to neighboring Bahrain by an approximately 16-mile-long causeway.
In addition its 180 guestrooms, the hotel will include more than 14,000 square feet of meeting and conference space and a variety of F&B offerings, including Café Swiss and Swiss Gourmet, and a pool and grill restaurant. The hotel will also feature the brand’s signature Pürovel Spa & Sport along with an outdoor rooftop pool. Twenty onsite luxury residential apartments will be branded under the Swissôtel Living concept.
Swissôtel Al Khobar complements a growing portfolio of FRHI-managed hotels under development in Saudi Arabia, including Swissôtel, Raffles, and Fairmont hotels in Jeddah all slated to open before 2020, and Fairmont Riyadh, Business Gate, which is expected to open this year. Swissôtel properties will also debut throughout the Middle East within the next five years, with Swissôtel Jadaf in the United Arab Emirates, Swissôtel Citystars Sharm El Sheikh, and a property in New Cairo—Swissôtel Katameyah in Egypt.
FRHI has 19 hotels and more than 7,000 guestrooms open and operating in the Middle East, Africa, and India with 18 more properties in varying stages of development representing 5,000 rooms. Swissôtel Al Khobar becomes FRHI’s eighth hotel in Saudi Arabia, with three hotels representing more than 3,000 guestrooms open, and an additional five with 1,200 guestrooms currently in the pipeline.
