GOSTELOW REPORT—On January 16, “I achieved my dream, a launch party for my new hotel that will provide a home for royal history – and the event was worth every cent,” says Nver Mkhitaryan, owner of Emerald Palace Kempinski, Dubai.
The party was a feast of gastronomy and entertainment for the 256 invited guests. It showcased a palace, also known as a hotel with 6,400 crystal chandeliers and 30,000 pieces of bespoke Italian furniture, plus 383 bedrooms and suites and eight hotel villas. The 25-acre complex, which includes 244 adjacent residential apartments, and 1,700 feet of absolutely private white sand beach, is owned by Mkhitaryan’s Emerald Palace Group.
“I have been architect, interior designer and landscape visionary for the whole thing. It has been a 10-year labor of love. I deliberately designed the hotel as a timeless palace that will still be the same a hundred years from now. There are lifestyle hotels all around but they will go out of fashion in 10 years,” he said with confidence.
The hotel opened November 29, 2018, but he had already been planning his grand opening party since the middle of the year. Instead of using an outside party planner, he relied on his Emerald Palace Group team.
“I did not want anything less than perfect at the party; this must be the best, and it must have a reason,” Mkhitaryan said. The evening was black or white tie, with medals. Invited guests, who included Dubai’s Most Important, plus key global media, started with Champagne, Dom Pérignon 2009, and after a seated four-course dinner, guests moved outside for a New Year’s Eve-worthy firework show accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra flown in from Ukraine.
Add yet another crowning glory, the inauguration of The Royal Club, devised and led by Mkhitaryan. “I have coordinated this with the full support of imperial and royal dynasties. We will work together not only socially but for cultural and philanthropic events. At the hotel’s party, guests also included the 11 founding members of The Royal Club. We had the head of the Imperial House of Russia, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, and the descendants of former European monarchies of Albania, Austria, Georgia, Hungary, Portugal, plus counterparts from Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya and Rwanda. Never have so many names from history gathered together in a 21st century hotel,” said the entrepreneur.
Mkhitaryan lists dynastic history among myriad hobbies and interests that are worthy of Leonardo. He collects art and antique firearms, all working. He is the author of “Man and Dwelling,” a tome on the psychology of housing, published in Rome in 2016. A scientist by training, he dabbled extremely successfully in real estate in his home city of Kiev, Ukraine, before relocating to Dubai in 2005. “I saw they were building man-made islands that turned out to be The Palm, and I was able to secure the best slot there, with 360-degree views and day-long sun,” he explained.
Why Kempinski as management? With a history going back to 1897, it is Europe’s oldest luxury hotel company, is the simple answer. Why spend so much on one evening? The hotel itself is rumored to have cost at least US$750 million and Dubai is potentially becoming over-built. Despite competition, Booking.com’s starting figure for a 660-square-foot room at Emerald Palace Kempinski for the night of Sunday, January 20, was US$522, room only.
Nver Mkhitaryan is happy: “I cannot say how much our opening party cost as the bills are still coming in but the long-term return on investment will be more than worthwhile. We have so many distinguishing features – we have the world’s largest Alain Ducasse restaurant complex – and by setting the tone with our event, and our ongoing relationship with The Royal Club, we have differentiation that no other Dubai hotel can offer.”