CHARTING NEW WATERS

PONTIAC LAND’S EVAN KWEE IS PUSHING PAST THE PANDEMIC WITH A NEW RESORT DEVELOPMENT IN THE MALDIVES, AS PART OF THE KWEE FAMILY’S EXPANSION OUT OF SINGAPORE AND INTO THE GLOBAL HIGH-END HOSPITALITY MARKET.

- JESSICA TAN

EVAN KWEE HAS LONG LOVED HOTELS.

“I still remember peering over our balcony [at home in Singapore] every night watching them construct the Regent [hotel] as a young boy. Hotels are in my blood,” he once said in an interview. It’s a good love to have as he is part of the Kwee family, who owns one of Singapore’s largest property groups—including the Regent—that is chaired by his father Kwee Liong Tek.

Now the younger Kwee is helming one of the biggest hospitality projects ever undertaken by Pontiac Land— the Fari Islands development in the Maldives. At 88 hectares, this project is the largest by land size that Pontiac Land has done. The first phase of the development has cost to date about $400 million—more than the $345 million in revenues that the group had last year—and the entire project won’t be finished for another two years. Fari Islands is a major bet for the family, who rank No. 11 on Singapore’s 50 Richest list with a fortune of $5.4 billion.