Anthony (Tony) Cohen is president of Global Edge Investments, Toronto. He is co-owner in Le Germain Toronto and a partner with Peter Freed of Freed Developments Ltd. in the forthcoming 102-key Thompson Toronto, a mixed-used development that will liven up the King Street West area of the city. Cohen is now interested elsewhere in Canada, say Calgary and Vancouver, and he wants a couple of key destinations in the United States and Israel. In the increasing blending of hotel development—not only with mixed-use but lifestyle development—Cohen is also an investor in London-based wahanda.com, the spa and wellness Web site that is chaired by Wolf Hengst, former co-president and COO of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.

Mediterrania-Saïdia is the first of six coastal resorts in Morocco that form part of the Plan Azur tourism strategy to bring an additional 10 million annual visitors to the north African country by 2010. Property-Logic, Malaga, Spain, is currently developing 11 upscale projects at Mediterrania Saïdia under the brand name Le Jardin de Fleur. The development will include at least 10 4-and 5-star hotels and, already, a 384-key Radisson Resort & Spa Saïdia has been signed. Property-Logic also owns the exotic island Ilha de Cajaíba in a beautiful bay in the state of Bahia, Brazil. This mixed-use development, which will be car-free, will include 27 holes of designer golf, 2,000 apartments, 800 villas and nine hotels with more than 2,000 rooms. The Ilha de Cajaíba properties have not yet been signed. Property-Logic’s lead team includes Sean Cusack, Joop Huisman and David Woodward.

Michael Gibb, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts’ vice president of operations and development, Middle East, is looking at new opportunities to reinforce the Rosewood presence and develop the portfolio within the Middle East. In the UAE, Rosewood is already working on the 193-key Rosewood Dubai International Financial Centre, a joint venture between Dubai-based Daman Investments and Dallas-based JMJ Development. Gibb sees expansion possibilities elsewhere in the UAE, especially Abu Dhabi, and he is also looking at Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.

Talking of Qatar, that particular sultanate is attracting a lot of development attention. The Pearl-Qatar is a man-made development north of the capital of Doha. It is being constructed by United Development Co., Doha, which is chaired by Hussain Ebrahim Alfardan, who comes from a long-established pearl merchant family (he is still closely involved in quality jewelry as well as real estate and money exchange, and he is on the board of Investcorp, Bahrain). The Pearl-Qatar, inspired by the French Riviera, will occupy some 985 acres (397 ha) of new land and offer over 25 miles (40 km) of new coastline. The mixed-use development will be three major hotel opportunities, but so far the only development that has been announced is the 150-key Four Seasons on Pearl Island. Other hotel projects on Pearl-Qatar are being developed and are at various stages of negotiations, says Walid Maalouf, director of hospitality for United Development Co.

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