Star East Group - a management firm whose clients include most of Hong Kong's top show-business personalities - has launched a Planet Hollywood-style flagship restaurant in Central it hopes will be replicated across the Chinese-speaking world.
The new 25,000 square foot, $50 million restaurant in the basement of the Bank of America Tower is to be the template for Star East's franchise restaurant enterprise.
'Hopefully, wherever there are Chinese people who recognise and can identify with our stars, there will be a Star East restaurant,' Andrew Chan Chak-mo, executive director of business development, said.
The launch comes two months after a dispute with its first franchisee almost sunk the entire venture before it began.
The Star East restaurant theme has had a tough journey from drawing board to implementation following a series of financial and legal disputes with previous Singaporean partner Grande Entertainment Group, which planned to open restaurants in Singapore and Malaysia last year.
The two have now officially split, with Grande losing the rights to use the Star East name.
At present, Star East has one mainland franchisee - with a restaurant in Guangzhou and another opening this month in Chengdu - who paid $2 million for a licence.
