Gostelow Report
Mary Gostelow, Contributing Editor -- Hotels, 10/31/2009 11:00:00 PM
Guy Laliberté, Montréal-based founder of Cirque du Soleil, was given permission in 2007 to go ahead with a US$66 million investment for a resort on Nukutepipi—one of the Duke of Gloucester Islands, a sub-group of the Tuamotu Group, two-and-a-half hours' flying time from Tahiti. The resort will have about 20 guestrooms and suites, and heavy investment is needed to build an airstrip and a medical center. Laliberté is also thinking of doing something on Bora Bora with land belonging to Thierry Barbion, owner of the adjacent Four Seasons Bora Bora. It is possible that Laliberté might also be interested in the Spanish island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean.
Ben Weprin, president and CEO of A.J. Capital Partners, Chicago, has overseen investment in Hotel Raleigh, Miami Beach, Florida, and Hotel St Barth Isle de France in the French West Indies. Founded in 2008, A.J. Capital Partners has also acquired a minority interest in Auberge Resorts, for which it seeks further acquisitions and management contracts.
Robert Cook, CEO of MWB Hotels, London, oversees the Hotel du Vin and Malmaison brands. It is now finally the right time to start thinking about taking the more sophisticated Malmaison brand outside the UK, perhaps via franchising, Cook says.
The Paris-based Chevalier family first moved from restaurants to hotels with the purchase of the St James's Club, which has now passed to a relative. Jérôme Chevalier is chief executive of the Pavillon de la Reine hotel in historic Place des Vosges, Paris. He and his mother have recently purchased the 32-key Hôtel de l'Elysée on Faubourg St-Honoré. They will rename the hotel and, with the help of designer Didier Benderli, who used to work with Jacques Garcia, will take it down to 26 guestrooms and suites. Chevalier says he is looking for yet more purchases in Paris.
Watch for a new brand launch out of Switzerland led by Cairo-born, Lausanne-based entrepreneur Rene de Picciotto. As well as building mega shopping centers in St. Petersburg and elsewhere in Russia, de Picciotto is building the 3-star Starling brand. The first new-build Starling will be a 154-key development at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. De Picciotto says he wants to think about Saint-Nazaire, Marseille and Montpellier, and other French cities similarly served by low-cost budget airlines.
Simon Coombs, president and CEO of Geneva-based Shaza Hotels, is working toward 30 hotels by 2016, when the group aims for an IPO. He has signed Bahrain, Doha, Fez, Marrakech, Cairo, Tangiers and two in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo. Coombs says interest is coming quickly from developers attracted not only by the family market but by the potential of providing a product for a business sector glad to escape from much razzmatazz.
Dusit International, Bangkok, sees India as the way to quick growth. Led by the corporate director of Dusit Devarana and dusitD2 brands, Anton Kilayko, Dusit plans at least six hotels there by 2013. The first property will be the 78-room Dusit Devarana New Delhi in May. Dusit's partner in India is Bird Hospitality Services, New Delhi.
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