The Hotel Asia was a three-star hotel housed within a seven-storey building situated along Scotts Road on the fringes of the Orchard Road shopping and tourist belt. Established in 1973, the hotel did not get off to the best of starts as one of its dining outlets, the Fortuna Restaurant, was robbed by three youths soon after it opened. In 2006, the insurance firm Asia General Holdings sold the 146-room hotel together with the Asia Insurance Building at Finlayson Green to the Ascott Group for a total of $217.5 million. The new owners initially planned to convert the hotel into a serviced apartment property known as Citadines Scotts, but eventually sold the property to Hayden Properties for $147 million in 2007. The hotel was subsequently demolished and the site slated for redevelopment into a 56-unit luxury condominium project known as the Hamilton, which will be the first residential property in Singapore to feature private parking bays on every floor.
