OCTOBER 2018 FORBES ASIA | 15Kempinski signed up only in May, and it began taking book-
ings just in August, so the opening has been somewhat sot. Pe-
rennial says it spent $8 million on ixtures, ittings, equipment
and supplies for the empty hotel to get it ready in time. But the
company has tempered expectations, noting that the hotel’s full
range of services, including the food-and-beverage oferings,
will arrive in phases. he promised Michelin-caliber chef won’t
be announced until later in the year. In mid-September Kem-
pinski’s marketing department said there had been a “steady
pick-up in reservations and inquiries” and was expecting more
interest once the hotel is up and running.
A weak link in the Capitol development project is the Capi-
tol Piazza, which opened in 2015. It includes the high-end shops
on the cross street, North Bridge Road: Cortina Watch, French
porcelain-and-glass producer Daum-Haviland and German ta-
bleware-maker Villeroy & Boch. But the languishing Galleria
promenade is not quite so upmarket. On an August aternoon
two lone patrons sit under indoor palm trees outside the 1933
by Toast Box café, where a signboard promotes an inexpensive
“Tok Gong” combo of chili crab dip with toast sticks. It seems a
far cry from the scene that the hotel chain described in its press
release in May—a promenade that includes “an array of quintes-
sentially Kempinski gastronomic delights.”
At the luxury condominium building, Eden Residences
Capitol, only 16 of the 39 units have sold. he last one closed for
$7.5 million—in 2015.
Meanwhile, the 89-year-old Capitol heatre, which got a
$45 million refurbishment, also opened in 2015. It had been