TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Ambassador Hotel Kaohsiung announced on Thursday (Oct. 27) it will bid farewell to the public after Jan. 31, 2023 following four decades in business.

Inaugurated in 1981, the 21-story hotel in the harbor city of southern Taiwan has received many prominent showbiz artists, business people, and political figures, it said in a statement. In addition to aging woes, its closure is also a response to the growingly fierce competition brought upon by international hotel chains.

Located along the Love River, the landmark covering an area of 2,026 pings (6,696 square meters) will be rebuilt in an urban renewal project in collaboration with Continental Development Corporation and Formosan Rubber Group. The complex will be repurposed as a hotel that will also serve as an apartment hotel.

The hotel boasts a prime location as it sits in the Asia New Bay Area, home to the Kaohsiung Exhibition Center, Kaohsiung Music Center, Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal, Kaohsiung Public Main Library, and the Circular light rail.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Hotel Taipei, which shuttered in September, will also be given a new lease of life as a hotel boasting 106 large suites and Michelin-starred restaurants as well as serviced apartments.

The joint venture, tentatively named Ambassador Palace Hotel Taipei, will be implemented along with Japan’s Palace Hotel Co. It is slated for opening in 2028, per CNA.