Rosewood Yangon, the city’s first ultra-luxury hotel, yesterday received Yangon’s 31st Blue Plaque, signifying a leap forward for Yangon both in terms of hospitality offerings and preserving the city’s rich heritage.
Rosewood Yangon, which is situated on the corner of Sule Pagoda Road and Kanna Road near the Strand, will offer 205 guestrooms and suites as well as one and two-bedroom residences. The public will be able to book rooms at the hotel from October onwards.
Formerly the New Law Courts, the building was constructed between 1927 and 1931 and is one of Asia’s first multi-storied, steel-framed buildings. During WWII, the building was occupied by Japanese troops and sustained damage during the bombing of the nearby port. It subsequently housed a myriad of government departments, including the Police Headquarters and the Aviation Department and the upper house of the nation’s first independent representative parliament.
In 2012, the building was put up for tender to private developers. In October 2014, a lease agreement on the property was signed between the Yangon Region Government and Prime Residence, which is a partnership between Kanok Furniture and Decoration of Thailand and Jewellery Luck Group of Companies of Myanmar. Restoration work, which would ultimately amount to almost US$100 million, began the same year.
In May 2018, Prime Residence signed an agreement with Hong Kong’s Rosewood Hotels & Resorts to bring the ultra-luxury brand to Myanmar, upsetting plans for the building to be occupied by the five-star Heritage Hotel Kempinski Yangon.
Rosewood Yangon is opening in Yangon at a time when tourist arrivals from western countries have dropped as a result of violence in Rakhine. But the hotel is betting that tourists will return in the coming years, and with an appetite for high-end luxury hospitality offerings.
“The owners felt that the property was better suited as a Rosewood ultra-luxury hotel rather than a five-star brand. When business gets better in the country, our objective is to capture the high-end tourists from Western Europe and North America when they return to the market,” Ed Brea, managing director of Rosewood Yangon, told The Myanmar Times.
Rosewood Yangon was also awarded with the Blue Plaque, which recognises the city’s landmark heritage buildings. The Blue Plaque project is supported by the Yangon City Development Committee and implemented by the Yangon Heritage Trust (YHT).
Dr. Thant Myint-U, founder of YHT, who attended the ceremony together with Yangon Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein, said: “For years, private firms had either knocked down heritage buildings or did with them what they wanted. Prime Residence was the very first company that sought out the YHT and asked to work together on a conservation management plan.”
He added that the YHT has asked that the entire area around Bank Street and Lower Pansodan “be re-imagined and redeveloped in a way that will protect our unparalleled heritage and that is good for local residents, creates jobs and will make downtown Yangon a world-class destination.”
