SHAH ALAM: Selangor’s i-City will see RM700 million investments in three hotels and a total accommodation of 1,000 rooms in the near future.

The three-part hotel plan on the 72-hectare freehold ultrapolis along the Federal Highway began with the official opening of the Best Western i-City yesterday by Tourism and Culture Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Dr Ong Hong Peng.

“Best Western i-City is conceptualised to offer optimum comfort, convenience and connectivity for both business and leisure travellers to i-City,” Ong said.

The 216-room, three-star establishment commenced operations in December last year.

“I am confident that by the end of the year, Best Western can reach an 80% occupancy rate,” said I-Bhd deputy chairman Datuk Eu Hong Chew.

Best Western i-City is expected to be joined by a four-star establishment — Double Tree, managed by Hilton Worldwide — in 2018, together with a performing arts centre and a convention centre.

Another five-star hotel will join the two hotels to form the Jewel development that is in the pipeline for the ultrapolis.

Also present during the event was regional director of operation for Best Western International, Rodney Simpson, who at the press conference announced that Best Western had just entered into an agreement to open one Genting and one Kota Kinabalu chain, amid 10 other hotels in the pipeline.

He said these hotels, along with the i-City property, make part of the Best Western International brand and will join the existing chains in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan.

The i-City Leisure Park currently attracts a weekly average of 90,000 visitors.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 28, 2015.