Originally Posted by
bhrubin
Third, Hong Kong already has a Ritz-Carlton, so the ownership of this location almost certainly would prefer a different brand...and easily already could have made that change now that Marriott owns both brands.
First of all I completely agree that the suggestion that the St. Regis brand will go away is nonsense. However on this one particular point I would say Kowloon and Central are two different markets. There is a Hyatt in both markets, as well as many other brand examples in both markets. And of course there used to be an excellent Ritz Carlton in Central (I wish it had never left). So you could easily add a RC at this location and not worry about brand dilution.
Someday there could be another RC in Central, even if this particular project has been chose to be a StR.