Hotel Shilla to open new hotel in Silicon Valley in 2022

Seen is a concept image of Shilla Stay hotel in Silicon Valley, California, which will open in 2022. / Captured by Mercury News

By Baek Byung-yeul

Hotel Shilla, the hotel and duty free arm of Samsung Group, will open its branch hotel in Silicon Valley, California, in a bid to expand its overseas operations, the firm said Wednesday.

“We plan to open a new hotel in San Jose scheduled to begin operation in 2022,” an official of the firm said. “We will come with more details when things are finalized.”

Hotel Shilla is building a 200-room hotel in Alviso, a northern district of San Jose, according to San Jose-based newspaper Mercury News. The hotel will be branded as Shilla Stay, a business hotel branch of Hotel Shilla.

The city is developing the area as an entertainment district and the hotel would be located next to a Topgolf golfing entertainment complex.

The location has seen growing demand for hotel rooms because tech firms in Silicon Valley are expanding their operations. “Demand for hotel rooms still outweighs the current supply in that area,” a local realty brokerage was quoted by a local media outlet.

The proposed hotel is also close to the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center. Google and Micron Technology will have new office buildings near the hotel. Google paid $154.5 million for two office buildings near the hotel location and Micron is shifting employees to three buildings nearby as well.

Hotel Shilla has been operating premium hotels in Seoul and Jeju Island and 11 business hotels. It also has been operating Jinji Lake Shilla Hotel in Suzhou, China, since 2006 on commission.

The firms said this is the hotel chain's plan to increase overseas operations, and its Da Nang branch in Vietnam, which is scheduled to be open in 2019, will become the first case of the plan. The Da Nang branch will be operated under a new brand, Shilla Monogram.