Salter Brothers set to unveil its new global brand, Ardour Hotels and Estates at newly acquired Kingsford Barossa
Salter Brothers is pleased to announce the settlement of their acquisition of the historic Kingsford Barossa in South Australia which will be the first destination for their new global brand Ardour Hotels & Estates from Q3, 2024.
Identifying a gap in the market, Ardour was born from the ambition of growing a portfolio of curated hotels and estates to offer luxurious hospitality experiences within the most naturally stunning settings, for colleagues, families and friends to connect and celebrate. Ardour’s brand story of “Celebrated Luxury” strongly aligns with the Kingsford property in South Australia’s Barossa Region, which has all the essential features to create rewarding, shared experiences. Ardour Kingsford Barossa will deliver a new way for social and corporate gatherings to escape the everyday, only 45 minutes from Adelaide.
This acquisition and the development of the Ardour Hotel and Estates brand strategically aligns with Salter Brothers regional hospitality growth strategy and the formation in 2023 of its hospitality management company, Salter Brothers Hospitality (SBH). Tourism Research Australia reports that nearly half of the nation’s tourism expenditure (46% or $107 billion) occurs in regional Australia, yet investment of high quality accommodation remains to be a challenge.
Speaking about the launch of Ardour at the newly acquired Kingsford property, Tash Tobias, CEO, Salter Brothers Hospitality commented:
“We’re excited to be launching our first Ardour in an esteemed destination such as the Barossa, with a reputation for premium food and wine. For guests seeking a luxurious escape from the everyday, we’ll be creating an iconic hospitality experience that brings together the best of the Barossa with the beautiful Australian backdrop and luxurious spaces available at Kingsford. Our team is looking forward to warmly welcoming guests and providing a rewarding and memorable experience.”
On Salter Brothers selecting South Australia for the first Ardour Hotels & Estates property, South Australian Minister for Tourism, Zoe Bettison said:
“South Australia is excited to welcome Salter Brothers Hospitality to our state as the new owners of Kingsford The Barossa – making it the first luxury destination under the Ardour brand. Situated in the world-renowned Barossa Valley wine region, this stunning historical property which is the iconic ‘Drover’s Run’ home from McLeod’s Daughters is an asset to the region.”
“I look forward to seeing Ardour Kingsford Barossa draw visitors to the region where tourism is currently worth $281 million to our state,” Minister Bettison said.
Salter Brothers has secured the keys of luxury South Australia hotel, Sofitel Adelaide, with the global fund manager confirming settlement of its AU$154m acquisition.
The 5-star hotel on Currie Street, which opened in 2021, is managed by Accor and consists of 251 guestrooms and suites, Garcon Bleu restaurant, two bars, as well as extensive leisure facilities and meeting spaces.
A Prestige Lounge room in one of Sofitel Adelaide’s suite categories
“We are delighted to expand and strengthen our ongoing relationship with Accor,” said Salter Brothers Managing Director, Paul Salter.
“We now have two luxury lifestyle properties in South Australia – including the recently acquired Kingsford The Barossa.
In 2021, Sofitel Adelaide marked the first newly built luxury hotel in Adelaide in 30 years
“Leisure travel is forecast to steadily increase in 2024, with events such as LIV Golf Adelaide virtually sold out, so we are very excited about the region as a destination.”The hotel is the first asset acquired in Salter Brothers’ Core Hospitality Real Estate Fund, which is focused on newer upscale and luxury hotels with broad appeal that require little to no front-end capital expenditure.
The Australian firm is planning to launch a value-add fund and bespoke strategies with its capital partners in the region.
Rahul Ghai has been hired as managing director, Asia, to lead Australian alternative investment group Salter Brothers’ real estate expansion in the region.
Ghai joined the firm’s newly established Singapore office in November from Swiss manager Partners Group, where he was most recently managing director and regional head for private real estate Europe. Before he relocated to London in 2021 to lead the group’s European real estate business, he was managing director and regional head for private real estate Asia at the firm since 2017, based in Singapore. Prior to that, he spent six years at Deutsche Bank in Singapore as managing director and head of investments for Asia-Pacific.
Ghai: The former Partners Group executive has relocated back to Singapore to oversee Salter Brothers’ new office
In his new role, Ghai will lead Salter Brothers’ growth outside of Australia, where he will start by identifying investment opportunities with the firm’s capital partners and institutional clients. It is understood the firm is looking at both bespoke mandates for its institutional investors and an Asia-focused value-add fund to be launched next year.
“Australia is our home market and we have done well on behalf of our clients,” Ghai said. “We are increasingly seeing the maturity and institutionalizing of the broader hospitality sector across Asia, so it feels like a natural extension for us to go outside of Australia. We are also responding to what our clients are seeking, as we grow outside Australia.”
In terms of sector, the firm is planning to grow its boutique luxury hotel strategy across Japan and Southeast Asia. It will also look to acquire or organically build platforms focusing on hospitality and the broader living sector, including serviced apartments, co-living and build to rent, according to Ghai. He added that Salter Brothers’ skill set and experience in managing hospitality assets is “complimentary and transferrable” to the extended living sector.
Having opened its first Asian office outside of Australia in Singapore in August, the firm is understood to be in the process of opening an office in Tokyo next. Currently, it has a team of seven investment professionals across Singapore and Japan. Under the leadership of Ghai, some of the more senior hires in the new team include former KSL Capital Partners vice-president Ethan Quek and former IHG Japan director of finance Gene Osborne. In addition, the firm has an existing hospitality operations team based in Vietnam.
“We are excited about the caliber of the team that we have assembled to launch our Asian expansion, with teams now based in Singapore and Japan,” said Paul Salter, managing director of Salter Brothers. “We are committed to the region with in-country teams that can leverage our our existing scale in Asia-Pacific. In Rahul, we have an experienced leader who we believe is the right person to grow our franchise throughout Asia.”
With capital coming from both private wealth clients and institutional investors, Melbourne-headquartered Salter Brothers invests in specialist property, private equity and credit. The group currently has assets under management of more than A$3 billion ($1.95 billion; €1.8 billion). After Salter Brothers’ hotel platform was formed in December 2015, it has built a portfolio of more than 5,000 rooms across 37 hotels.
Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport – Oct 17, 2023
Melbourne-based fund manager Salter Brothers is eager to get in on the tech wreck.
Street Talk understands Gregg Taylor’s new wholesale equities fund will launch this week, targeting $50 million in commitments to funnel into private and listed multi-stage tech companies.
The unlisted fund will focus on five verticals, telecommunications, enterprise software, fintech, medtech and property tech, seeking to take advantage of what they see as a 20-year valuation lull in the sector.
“We believe that the current vintage of our Fund presents a compelling opportunity for investors to enter the market at attractive valuations in the technology sector, where valuations are extremely depressed,” potential investors were told.
The investment committee – made up of Taylor, Salter Brothers chief Robert Salter and Waves Tech Ventures co-founder Hayley Evans – will be advised by a group of industry specialists including eftpos Australia chief executive Stephen Benton and Nu Mobile’s boss Paul O’Neile. Investment director Tineyi Matanda and former Morgans stockbroker Chris Titley feature on the fund’s investment team.
Fund target investment universe/stage Salter Brothers Tech Fund information memorandum
The Salter Brothers Tech Fund has a 5-year lock-up period and is targeting a 15 per cent gross internal rate of return. It will charge a 2 per cent management fee and a 20 per cent performance on outperformance of a 5 per cent hurdle over the financial year, subject to a high watermark.
The fund will be nestled alongside the Salter Brother’s private equity and listed equities funds, under the firm’s funds management umbrella, which also includes a property and credit arm. Salter also operates an advisory and capital markets business and a Significant Investor Visa program and has around $3 billion in assets under management.
Fund term Salter Brothers Tech Fund information memorandum
Investor commitments will be accepted in the first year after the launch and unlisted investments made in the first three years. Most of its investments will be centred on Australian and New Zealand small and mid-sized venture capital and late-stage/pre-IPO tech with around a third in listed equities and cash.
Funds house Salter Brothers is planning a dramatic overhaul of the InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto, which would see it scrap a 1980s extension to the heritage complex and replace it with a new tower of offices and luxury hotel rooms.
The move defies concerns about the city’s lagging office market and the surge in the supply of hotel rooms, with plans for a new mixed-use tower to rise beside The Rialto Towers on Collins St at a time when many traditional projects are struggling to get off the ground.
Salter Brothers is best known as a hotel funds manager but also counts equity investments and other asset classes in its empire, and it is pitching the tower as fitting in with surrounding commercial buildings, including the neighbouring Rialto Towers and Olderfleet building.
The two buildings that make up the existing hotel – the Winfield Building and the Rialto Building – are significant in Melbourne’s history as they hark back to Victoria’s building boom.
The Rialto building was considered a landmark office building and the Winfield Building dates to 1891 and was formerly the Wool Exchange Building.
The Grollo Group redeveloped the entire site, including refurbishing the two historic buildings and constructing the Rialto Towers, in the 1980s. This included an extension to the Winfield building that will be demolished under the Salter plans and replaced by the new tower, along with a refurbishment of the heritage buildings.
An artist’s impression of the Salter Brothers plan for the InterContinental hotel in Collins St, Melbourne.
Salter said the heritage Winfield and Rialto buildings would be safeguarded and it has lodged an application with Heritage Victoria for a renewal of the well-known heritage assets.
Under the plans, they will continue to be used as a hotel, and the non-heritage 1980s extension would go, with other concealed heritage elements to be uncovered. The historic horseshoe shaped lane way will be reopened for dining, bars and shopping.
Architectural firm Cox has worked up the designs for a mixed-use building in what Salter called an elegant tower, which it says will bolster the precinct’s reputation. The tower would be largely concealed by the adjacent high-rise Rialto Towers.
The building tapers in from the western side boundary, protecting the airspace above the top of the heritage Rialto building, and is set back behind the Winfield building on Collins St.
The plan includes 270 new luxury hotel rooms, 22,000sq m of premium offices, 1,500sq m of retail at Collins St and Flinders Lane, and a new club housed in the Winfield building.
Salter Brothers managing director Paul Salter said that guests and visitors wanted unique experiences from hotels.
“Investing in the preservation of the Winfield and Rialto buildings and opening up the hidden heritage covered walkway to the public, are critical to the unique experience we want to offer here,” he said.
“Melbourne at its best is a contemporary celebration of our history and heritage. Protecting the heritage, keeping the hotel use and adding office and retail will contribute to a vibrant mixed-use precinct that will also support the ongoing revitalisation of central Collins Street,” he said.
IHG Hotels & Resorts Australia and Pacific managing director Matt Tripolone said that distinctive heritage buildings and laneways were cherished by Melburnians.
“The heritage aspects of our existing Intercontinental Melbourne are an important part of the appeal of staying here. So we are excited about the opportunity to welcome our guests to a fully restored heritage experience within a lively precinct,” he said.
The plan is subject to approvals by Heritage Victoria and the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning, with a planning application to be lodged shortly.
The developer hopes to kick off building works in 2025 with the project to take about three years.