Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide have agreed with real estate developer Shenyang Huaqiang Jinlang City Square Properties, to create the first W Hotel-branded site in Shenyang, a northeastern province in China.

Scheduled to open in January 2019, the W Shenyang will be situated on Qingnian Avenue, known as the city’s Golden Corridor – encompassing the central business district, central administration district and central cultural district.

The hotel will include 280 guestrooms, 26,000sq ft (2,415sq m) of meeting space, a 24-hour business centre, spa, work-out facility, and an indoor heated swimming pool. It will also feature four restaurants.

“Shenyang provides an ideal foothold for Starwood’s expanding pipeline with its growing economy and position as a trade hub for northeast China,” said Franck Huang, vice president of acquisition and development in Greater China for Starwood.

Shenyang was the national capital city of China for more than two decades in the 17th Century before the Manchu reign moved west to Beijing in 1644. Remaining relics, such as Shenyang Botanical Gardens and Mukden Palace, are popular tourist attractions in the region.

W Hotels expects to open 12 new properties in the Asia Pacific region by 2019, with more than half of those hotels planned for China – including new flagships in Beijing and Shanghai, in addition to Suzhou, Changsha and Chengdu.

Starwood also claims that W Hotels is on track to reach 60 hotels by 2017.

Huaqiang Group is a read estate development company that was first established as an electronics manufacturer. The group is now a large corporation with expertise in various industries including financial services, entertainment and logistics.