Top end resort goes to Chinese
The Chinese company developing stage two of the Ord Irrigation Scheme has closed its purchase of the Kununurra Country Club Resort under a deal which is expected to give the Kimberley property a new lease of life.
Selling agent Colliers International yesterday confirmed finalisation of the sale of the 90-room resort by the listed Aspen to Kimberley Agricultural Investment (KAI) for $9.1 million. The deal includes 6000sq m of surplus development land in the centre of Kununurra.
KAI, owned by Shanghai Zhongfu, has previously expressed a desire to create "a really good tourism product" around the 2.8ha property, retaining it as a resort while perhaps better tapping its potential as a venue for conventions, weddings and exhibitions.
Colliers International director Wayne Lawrence said the site had attracted strong interest, with four parties lodging bids.
"We had a range of buyers from investors through to traditional hotel operators keen on the property, but KAI were keen from the outset," Mr Lawrence said.
"Shanghai Zhongfu is a prominent developer and hotel group in mainland China, so the experience is there to step in and run the resort, and the inclusion of a sizeable amount of surplus developable land was an added attraction."
The resort, one of Kununurra's longest-established properties, was originally used in the 1960s as a canteen by workers on the Ord scheme. Most of the most recent major improvements date to the 1980s, though the hotel rooms were upgraded just two years ago.
KAI was last year named the preferred developer of 13,400ha released as part of the second stage of the Ord scheme, with the State Government finalising the deal in mid-December.
The group intends to invest about $1 billion developing irrigated farms and infrastructure on the scheme.
