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Kings Perth Hotel
Prior to the construction of Kings Hotel Perth in the late 1960s, the Park Towers were located on the site of the hotel as well as the front half of the existing carpark.
The Kings Hotel office building was previously the site of Hobb’s Building, which was constructed in 1899 and extended in 1906 to become the King Edward. In years to follow, it would be renamed the Paddington Hotel. It was described as being “disfigured in later years by marble cladding, removal of the corner tower and surrounding verandas”. It was demolished in August 1981.
6 May 1991
Armstrong Jones Property Fund sells the Kings Hotel in Perth's CBD for $18 million. The original asking price of $23 million is dropped, due to the settlement valuation. Comprising of the 119-room hotel over 11 floors, the deal also includes a public car park lease and an eight-storey office block in the adjoining building, which is largely leased out to the West Australian government. The hotel is currently leased out to Ambassador Management (who were registered as a company in 1981 until 1992).
11 November 1994
Some people may remember the murder of Chris Norvilas, son of Kings Hotel owner Mirjam Norvilas. The 38-year-old, who was the General Manager, had returned to his penthouse sometime after 8pm on Tuesday 8th November, when he'd invited a visitor into his apartment. After reportedly sharing a wine and beer with Mr Norvilas, the guest plunged a knife into his sternum before cutting his throat twice. The next afternoon, his brother Chris and a hotel employee found his body, after becoming concerned he hadn't been seen all day (The West Australian, p3).
Hours before his murder, Chris had met up with Barney from Perth rock band Rawkus, to discuss problems they were having in obtaining visas to the US, with criminal conviction sheets of band members purportedly measuring some 10 feet long! Chris had recently become a financial backer, manager and friend of the band (Spirit of Metal).
Twenty nine year old Kurt Russel Steel was sentenced to life in 1995 for his murder, eligible for parole after 17 years. His Playboy playmate girlfriend Prudence Carter, was found guilty of being an accessory and sentenced to five years.
21 February 2007
The hotel is back on the market and expected to fetch $70 million. The site now needs a major refurbishment and Mirjam Norvilas decides to sell up. The hotel market is showing signs of recovering, after tourism was hit hard in wake of major terrorist attacks, as well as widespread fears of fatal diseases including SARS and bird flu.
High demand for accommodation has resulted in a shortage of rooms but no major hotels are being developed, due to soaring construction costs. Major tenants in the office block now include World English, Ready To Go Travel, Western Library Group Services, with Multiplex also renting a small office in the complex.
The 3.5-star hotel is located on a 3,003m² block and contains 117 rooms over 11 levels, as well as two penthouse apartments and a rooftop pool. It also houses offices over eight storeys and a public carpark containing 373 bays, which is currently leased out to Wilson’s Parking.
Car bays being an issue in the city and touted as scare at times, has seen rates for parking in A-grade buildings jumping to almost as much as office rents, with an average of $525 per bay a month (The West Australian, p58).
23 May 2007
The sale of the Kings Hotel is sidelined, with the Norvilas family opting to commit to a major refurbishment themselves. Although there had been a strong response from potential buyers, no offers met the expectations of the owners. The 3.5-star hotel will be upgraded to a four-star rating.
The resources boom, which followed numerous terrorist threats and the outbreak of SARS, has attracted new tourists and business visitors. This has seen hotel occupancy rates increase to the point the high demand for accommodation has led to a shortage of rooms, although as a result of soaring construction costs, no new major hotels are currently being developed (The West Australian, p58).
18 October 2008
Leading Australian architecture critic Elizabeth Farrelly, who is the adjunct professor of architecture at the University of Sydney and an outspoken former assistant editor of London’s The Architectural Review, visited Perth to present a talk at the Architecture and Heritage Forum. During her time, she toured the city to critique some of Perth’s buildings, voting Kings Perth Hotel the worst building. She states, “It doesn’t celebrate either the construction or the fact there are human beings in there. It just totally denies all that and just says I’m made of reconstituted dog poo”. She goes on to say, “…it makes for a completely crap building” (The West Australian, p9).
23 March 2009
Perth lawyer John Hammond narrowly missed being hit by two fist-sized falling chunks of concrete, as he walked down the Kings Hotel Carpark stairs on the river side. Hammond stated that he’d “heard the carpark had concrete cancer and that its future was in some doubt”. It was quickly assumed that parts of the concrete had separated as a result of being dried out or perhaps from a pipe leak. No imminent danger or further cracks could be found, which would be inspected regardless by an engineer and patched up if required. In the meantime, the carpark would not close as there was no cause for concern (The West Australian, p2).
17 February 2010
The hotel is listed for sale by Knight Frank for approximately $60 million. Mirjam Norvilas is selling up to retire from the property world.
Other hotels and properties owned by the prominent family (or ones they had previously been involved in), includes the Inn Town on Pier Street (now the Pensione Hotel Perth), Oceanic Hotel in Mosman Park and the Highway Hotel in Claremont (also known as the Coronado Hotel).
The hotel now has 117 rooms and suites, two penthouses, numerous function rooms including a ballroom that can host 450 people, two bars, a restaurant with alfresco dining and a rooftop pool. The carpark, which is still part of the package, includes 374 licensed car bays which is leased out to Wilson Parking to serve the public, as well as hotel guests. The office block with almost 5,000sqm is now leased out to a variety of tenants, including lawyers and settlement agents (The West Australian).
21 November 2010
The retirement of Mirjam Else Novilas is short-lived, passing away at the age of 86.
14 December 2010
Cascadale Holdings Pty Ltd, a group associated with Indonesian investors, purchases the Kings Hotel for $39 million. The attraction for the buyers was the "diversified investment portfolio with one purchase," as well as a good "scope to change the various uses of the complex and maximise the benefits of the current demand for hotel and car park space". The hotel also includes several function rooms including a ballroom, two bars and a restaurant. Indonesian investor and buyer, Jacky Mulani, who is based in Applecross, also owns the Araluen Golf Resort in Roleystone (The West Australian, p.36).
October 2012
Kurt Russel Steel, who was sentenced for life in 1995 for the murder of Chris Novilas, the General Manager of the Kings Hotel, is denied parole. Serving his time in Bunbury Regional Prison, he had the support of a community corrections officer and three psychologists. Due to being sentenced prior to November 1996 under the Offenders Community Corrections Act 1963, he is one of almost 60 prisoners who are not eligible for a program that could help increase their chances to be released on parole. Prisoners sentenced after November 1996 are subject to a later legislation.
16 October 2012
The WA Ballet is in the process of selling more than 2000 ballet costumes dating back 30 years ago. It comes as the sale of the hotel resulted in new management wanting to clear out everything, particularly as all of WA Ballet’s costumes had been stored at the Kings Hotel for more than 10 years. The costumes comprise of approximately 25% of the WA Ballet’s stocks. Prices start from $5 to $500 with more than half of the costumes selling in the first two days of the sale at their WA Ballet Centre on Whatley Crescent, Maylands.
22 July 2014
A development application for the Kings Hotel has been approved which will see extensions made with an extra 52 rooms.
14 July 2015
Rydges announces a signed management agreement to operate the Kings Hotel Perth, rebranding it to Rydges Perth after an extensive refurbishment. Together with the hotel's owner, Nobel Group, they release a media statement detailing the significant refurbishment of the property that is currently taking place and would continue for the next few months. This would see the number of hotel rooms increasing to 174 with three levels of commercial office space converted into 57 new rooms and the existing rooms all undergoing a full refurbishment, including new bathrooms.
All public spaces, particularly the restaurant, bar and conference facilities will also undergo refurbishment, with an expected completion date in mid-2016. It will bolster the hotel rating up a star to four-stars. The estimated cost for the renovations is $7.5 million with Christou Design Group Pty Ltd being contracted as the developer.
17 February 2017
Kings Hotel is due to close for approximately a year from around August and will reopen in the first half of the 2018 financial year.
2022
The hotel remains somewhat abandoned. MCS Security provides an onsite security guard for 12 hours every night and during the day on the weekend. A mobile patrol security officer attends regularly, as well as for required responses, during the weekdays.
For a while, (Vietnamese?) contractors did work on the Kings Hotel, for what appears to largely have been for plastering and painting. It's hard to know how long this continued for and whether or not it is continuing to date.
Noble Group
An online search of Noble Group, who were said to be Singapore-based (according to the security guard I spoke with), shows (if it is the same company in question), that they were accused of accounting fraud by Iceberg Research, which saw their credit rating downgraded to junk. As a result, they recorded net losses of $1.7 billion in 2015 and the remaining 49% of their agricultural business was also sold.
CEO Yusuf Alireza, who is now the CEO and co-founder of Dubai company ARP Global Capital, was terminated from Noble Group in May 2016 (Bloomberg). A year later, he sued its founder Richard Elman, for $58 million (AUD) compensation, alleging contract breaches. In 2019, the amount in question becomes $80 million (AUD) as a result of shares he is owed (The Straits Times). I am unable to find any updates since.
As of December 2021, Noble Group are undergoing their second restructure in three years which will see $500 million debt cut from $1.5 billion owed (Bloomberg). Another news article states they are now Hong-Kong based and are undergoing a winding up process in Bermuda, in an attempt to rescue themselves by selling billions of dollars of assets, taking hefty write-downs, as well as cutting hundreds of jobs over the past few years. After being de-listed from the Singapore Exchange in 2018, they rebranded themselves as Noble Group Holdings as part of the debt-for-equity restructuring process (The Straits Times).
Personal Experiences
In 2003, I had a trial experience as a waitress in the lower floor bar of the Kings Hotel. I really didn’t like it and didn’t take up the job. I met Mirjam on my first night and she was a lovely elderly lady, although she had a sense of hardness about her. I was quickly given the impression that if you double-crossed her, she’d resembled a mobster. I imagined no one would dare to push her around and I quickly respected her for that. Perhaps it was a tough-business mentality trait.
It didn’t take long to get the impression that the older son was lazy, his mother’s pet and was expecting to inherit the hotel. He sat around drinking with the patrons all night, whilst his younger brother worked without barely taking a break and did everything he could to please his mother. I felt that she didn’t bother to acknowledge this, let alone his presence. Perhaps I was also informed of this by one of the other staff members, I can’t recall.
