Billionaire Kwee Brothers’ Pontiac Land Launches Capella Sydney In Global Push Promising 7 More Hotels By 2025

After seven years of planning and construction work costing at least A$300 million ($197 million), Capella Sydney will finally open its doors on Wednesday, marking the latest launch in Capella Hotel Group’s global push in the hospitality industry.

Capella Sydney, which boasts 192 rooms, is part of a luxury hotel project housed in two historic sandstone buildings in the central business district of the Australian city.

“Interest in taking the Capella brand to other markets remains robust,” said Evan Kwee, vice chairman of Capella Hotel Group and head of hospitality and design for Pontiac Land, in an email response to Forbes Asia.

Kwee, 46, son of Kwee Liong Tek, chairman of Pontiac Land, said the group will open one hotel in Taipei next year, with six other new additions coming in South Korea’s Yangyang, Japan’s Kyoto and Osaka, China’s Nanjing, the Maldives and Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh in 2025.

Capella Hotel Group, a unit of Pontiac Land, currently manages eight hotels. Of these, Pontiac Land owns the Capella Singapore, Capella Sydney and Patina Maldives.

The group’s expansion looks well timed to catch the recovery in the global tourism industry. “More than ever, Covid has shown us that travel cannot be taken for granted, which has resulted in this massive surge for leisure travel we are experiencing now,” Kwee added.

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In mid-2021, Pontiac Land launched its 88-hectare hospitality development project in the Maldives. Helmed by the younger Kwee, the first phase of the Fari Islands had cost about $400 million.

Pontiac Land is one of the largest privately held family-owned property groups in Singapore. It now has over S$10 billion ($7.4 billion) in assets under management across hospitality, mixed-used, commercial and residential developments spanning across Singapore, New York, Sydney and the Maldives.

With a combined fortune of $5.8 billion, the Kwee brothers—Kwee Liong Keng, Kwee Liong Tek, Kwee Liong Seen and Kwee Liong Phing—were ranked No. 10 on the list of Singapore’s 50 Richest that was published in September. Their late father, Henry Kwee, a wealthy Indonesian textile merchant, moved to Singapore in 1958 and founded Pontiac Land in 1961.