Global Update
Living , breathing
St GileS
by Jeff Weinstein , editor in chief
Abigail Tan has been involved in her family ' s hotel business for about seven years .
As a determined hotelier and granddaughter to the patriarch of one of Malaysia ’ s well-known real estate dynasties , Abigail Tan has the background , youthful self-motivation and backing needed to wage a hotly competitive battle in the challenging New York City hotel market , to finish complicated projects like the one on the books right now in London ’ s Blackfriars , to further develop a company culture and , at the same time , to source new deals to deliver on a goal to reach 20 owned and / or managed St Giles Hotels Group properties by 2020 .
The London-based hotel company , which is part of the Tan family ’ s IGB Corp . that has almost US $ 5 billion worth of ongoing projects , recently opened its ninth hotel , The Tank Stream Hotel in Sydney , adding to its collection in the U . S ., U . K ., Malaysia and the Philippines ( systemwide , IGB owns 19 hotels ).
With an initial US $ 160 million allocated for expansion in North America , Europe and Africa , and the potential to inject as much as US $ 600 million more over the next five years , the 29-year-old Tan is excited about the opportunity to build a 3- to 5-star , centrally located brand in a business she truly loves . “ All the hotels are independently managed , which gives the teams on site greater flexibility / adaptability to the environment , culture and to meet the requirements of guests traveling to those locations ,” says Tan , who is also busy co-creating brand standards , training programs and marketing strategies .
In 2010 , St Giles entered the U . S . market with the US $ 78 million purchase of The Court and The Tuscany hotels operating under Starwood ’ s W brand in New York . Tan , one of nine cousins in the third generation of the Tan family , spent another US $ 14 million to renovate and reposition the assets as accessible , boutique hotels under the St Giles flag .
While she battles to drive business in New York , Tan is also spending a lot of her time completing a complicated mixed-use development project on a 1.81 acre site with a 350-room , 4-star hotel in London for north of US $ 200 million .
In between , she is shopping for new opportunities and cultivating relationships with potential owning partners . “ With our 20 by 2020 strategy , moving forward growth would probably be more on a 70 % management , 30 % acquisition basis ,” Tan says , adding that she is looking at an opportunity in Birmingham , England , as well as Bangkok . In fact , for Asia there is a unique hotel team there called Cititel Hotel Management , which manages St Giles and other hotel properties for IGB .
Tan particularly cites Europe and Asia as the best growth markets for St Giles due to basing its headquarters in Europe and its years of experience and expertise in Asia . “ In North America , we are looking at large hub cities for new projects and acquisitions ,” she adds .
For now , Tan is enjoying the ride and the challenges . “ Ever since I was young I loved going through the hotels , not the beach or anything else ,” she says . “ I would spend a lot of time at the front desk or go into the rafters to see what everyone was doing . I love how the operation can change on a daily basis and how it ' s almost like a living , breathing animal .”
14 HOTELS March 2016 www . hotelsmag . com