Trump’s tulip: A rendering of Donald
Trump’s planned Palm Trump International Hotel & Tower in
Dubai
Think big. It’s a time-honored dictum, and at
present, perhaps the biggest thinkers around are that select group
of ambitious and deep-pocketed developers of megaresorts, those
big-budget palaces of hospitality offering the best of everything,
including plush guest rooms, gourmet dining, pampering spas and
state-of-the-art meeting facilities.
Case in point: Michael W. Sansbury, executive vice president,
hotel operations, for the Nassau, Bahamas-based Baha Mar
Development Co. “We’re targeting what we call the
‘massive-affluent,’” he says, referring to a planned $1.6 billion,
multi-hotel megaresort to be called Baha Mar. “We have looked at
places such as Las Vegas and Atlantis, here in the Bahamas, and we
saw that there is demand for more resorts that are large, upscale
and luxurious.”
Megaresorts offer a transformative experience for their
surroundings as well as their guests. Just 30 years ago, for
example, Cancun remained a sleepy region dependent on its fishing
industry. Today, despite sudden setbacks like Hurricane Wilma, the
area is studded with huge, luxe hotels harboring some 30,000 rooms
and all the pricey day and nighttime recreation its privileged
guests could desire.
And more are on the way, all over the world. The following is a
selection of megaresort projects that take the art of thinking big
to a whole new dimension.
Bahía de Luperón
Dominican Republic
Sunny destinations close to the United States have obvious
appeal to megaresort developers which is why Dominican
Republic-based Costa BayanA is building an 11,000-acre project
comprising three upscale resorts AtlanticA, BayanA
and OceanA on the Bahía de Luperón coast between
Montecristi and Puerto Plata. The development broke ground last
September.
Caribbean creation: A plan of AtlanticA in the Dominican
Republic
The first property, AtlanticA, will open in December of this
year and feature 3,500 rooms and an Arnold Palmer-designed golf
course. When the entire project is completed (within eight to 10
years), guests will find a marina, four additional golf courses,
260 yacht hangers, three cruise ship piers, 28 boutique hotels, 850
shops and restaurants, 10,000 guest rooms and private residences
and an international airport with planned connections to cities
such as London, Madrid, Miami, Milan, New York, Paris and Rome.
Pierre Schnebelen, president of Costa BayanA Partners, says the
megaresort “will deliver the highest level of luxury to the most
sophisticated clientele.”
Macau/Hengqin Island
China
The ancient Chinese territory of Macau spent centuries
under Portuguese rule until it was handed over to China in 1999.
Today, this “special administrative region” (meaning it retains its
capitalist system for now) consists of three islands Coloane, Macau
and Taipa and most of the upcoming development will be on Taipa,
specifically on the Cotai Strip, a wedge of land recently reclaimed
from the sea and now linked to China by a bridge.
Among significant projects in the pipeline:
" Wynn Macau is set to open this fall. While
still building, the property already has announced plans for an
expansion; by early 2007, the megaresort will have cost an even $1
billion and will cover 16 acres with a total of 600 rooms, 100,000
square feet of casino space, 28,000 square feet of shopping, a spa,
a theater, numerous entertainment venues and 223,000 square feet of
meeting space.
" Due for early 2007 completion is the 3,000-room
Venetian Macau Resort Casino, with a price tag of
$2 billion. Owned by Las Vegas Sands, the company that jump-started
the Macau renaissance when it opened the $240 million Sands
Macau casino in 2004, this megaresort will occupy a site
“roughly half the size of the Las Vegas Strip,” according to a
spokesperson. The property will offer 1.8 million square feet of
meeting and convention space, 1 million square feet of shopping,
546,000 square feet of casino space and a host of restaurants, spa
facilities and entertainment venues.
" Also expected to open in 2007 is the $975 million, 600-room
MGM Grand Macau. This 28-story property will have
a curved facade meant to mimic the South China Sea flowing past its
doors. Expect mega-amounts of convention, shopping and gaming space
here, too.
" This past November, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts announced
two new properties coming to the Cotai Strip by the end of 2008.
The 500-room Shangri-La Hotel, Macau, and
1,000-room Traders Hotel, Macau, will share the
same 39-story building. A spa and a restaurant have been announced,
but there’s no word on the amount of meeting space.
" Pioneering Macau developer Stanley Ho and his Melco
International started work last May on a $1.2 billion megaproject
featuring an underwater casino, three hotels and a theater, among
other amenities, that will open in mid-2008.
With little vacant space left to build on within the three
Macanese islands, investors now are looking across the Cotai Strip
bridge to China, where the town of Zhuhai sits on Hengqin Island,
part of the Chinese province of Guangdong. Last October, Las Vegas
Sands announced plans for the new Hengqin Island
Resort here. The 1,300-acre property will include several
upscale hotels, approximately 1,500 rooms, numerous residential
villas, convention facilities, a theme park, a marina and an
outdoor amphitheater, among other attractions. Opening is expected
before 2010, but no timeline has been announced as yet.
NOW PENDING
The following megaresorts remain in the planning some would say “pipe dream” stage. But don’t count them out just yet.
" DestinY USA, Salina, N.Y. This planned 800-acre megaresort in Salina, near Syracuse, N.Y., will run entirely on renewable energy, according to Syracuse-based developer Destiny Co. The project involves converting the existing Carousel Center mall into a 4.3 million-square-foot entertainment complex. Features will include between 13,000 and 20,000 hotel rooms, a technology center, an aquarium, a re-creation of the Erie Canal, three golf courses and a 20-acre lake, all covered by what is billed as the world’s largest roof.
Ground was broken on one 1,300-room hotel in late 2002, but legal actions and local concerns have placed further construction on hold for now.
" Coney Island, Brooklyn, N.Y. Big Apple real-estate developer Joseph Sitt and his Thor Equities plan to build a $1 billion megaresort at this storied Atlantic Ocean playground, including a hotel topped by a dock for blimps, an indoor water park, and a host of restaurants and shops. Initial renderings show two skywalk-connected 250-room towers with sloping sides forming a pyramid that encloses the leisure amenities. A timeline has yet to be set.
" Moon Resort and Casino, site still to be named. Late in 2002, developer Michael R. Henderson revealed plans for a new $5 billion moon-themed megaresort in Las Vegas (where else?). Features were to include a 100-story, 10,000-room hotel-casino with lunar-like landscaping, moon buggy rides, an anti-gravity attraction, golf and tennis, a space shuttle-style people-mover, a 60,000-seat arena and the world’s largest convention center.
Then the project shifted to the Bahamas, reworked as a sphere-shaped 12,000-room resort on five artificial islands, but that plan stalled, too. Today, a spokesperson for Moon insists “the hotel will be built.” But where? Stay tuned. -- Terence Baker
Chiang Mai
Thailand
In the northern Thai hills near the border with Myanmar,
this small city with a population of 265,000 used to attract
adventurous backpackers. Today, development is set to turn the area
into an upscale destination studded with new hotels mostly small,
but all mega-luxe aimed at incentive groups.
The opening of the 570-room Sheraton Chiang
Mai in 2004 started the city’s push toward hot destination
status, quickly followed by the 80-room Four Seasons Resort
Chiang Mai, with its own spa and cooking school. Last year
saw the debut of the $100 million, 144-room Mandarin
Oriental Dhara Dhevi, Chiang Mai, also with a spa and a
culinary school, as well as four restaurants, three private dining
rooms, a ballroom for 850 people and a 200-seat amphitheater, all
on 60 acres of beautiful grounds.
Another newcomer is the 130-room D2hotel Chiang
Mai, the first in a projected series of D2hotel boutique
properties from Thai company Dusit Hotels & Resorts. The
property features two restaurants, a gym, a pool, and meeting and
banquet space.
Kurt Wachtveitl, veteran general manager of the Oriental,
Bangkok, says the Thai government wants Chiang Mai to be the
country’s new conventions hub. “With the arrival of the new
Suvarnbhumi Airport by the middle of next year,” he says, “and the
completion of the Chiang Mai International Meeting & Convention
Centre in 2007, in time for the three-month-long World
Horticultural Expo, the area will become the region’s new center
for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions.”
Dubai
United Arab Emirates
Less than a decade ago, Dubai officials decided to develop
the emirate’s financial services and tourism sectors as a hedge
against its finite oil reserves. The first fruit of this policy was
the extraordinary sail-shaped 202-room Burj al
Arab hotel, which opened in late 1999. The effort
continues today with even more mind-boggling properties in the
works.
Opening early this year, The Palm, Jumeirah, a
huge palm tree-shaped development that juts out into the Persian
Gulf, will be the world’s first $2 billion resort. The “trunk” of
the tree is 1.5 miles long and will be the site of 350 upscale
shops and a marina; 17 palm frond-shaped pieces of land radiate
outward from the trunk and will feature a bevy of posh villas,
hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues. Surrounding all of
this is the Crescent, an outer ring measuring seven miles around
that will offer three boutique hotels with Brazilian, Japanese and
Venetian themes, respectively, along with the $1.1 billion,
2,000-room Atlantis hotel, based on its namesake
in the Bahamas (and built by the same developer, Florida-based
Kerzner International).
If all that isn’t enough, the whole magnificent melange will
be replicated in the forthcoming The Palm, Jebel
Ali, approximately 15 miles west of its sister. This newer
megaresort, to be completed in late 2007, will include as its
centerpiece the 500-room Palm Trump International Hotel
& Tower, which will have 3,000 square feet of meeting
space and resemble a golden tuliplike flower just beginning to
spread out its petals.
Although the tower will be that of Donald Trump, the developer
will be Nakheel LLC, owned by the United Arab Emirates’ crown
prince, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, who says his company
has 13 other hotel properties planned for the two Palms, with a
combined (and senses-staggering) price tag of $30 billion.
Palm representatives claim the two projects, each bigger than
Manhattan island, will be visible from space. A third Palm (no
details as yet) is planned.
Marina Bayfront/Sentosa Island
Singapore
Last April, Singapore legalized gaming as part of a broad
strategy to bolster its tourism industry. Now this historic
city-state will construct two Las Vegas-style megacasino hotels one
on Sentosa Island, the other at Marina Bayfront. The properties,
with construction costs likely to reach $1 billion each, will have
a combined room count of 3,000.
Several Las Vegas hotel-casino companies, including Harrah’s
Entertainment, Las Vegas Sands and MGM Mirage, have submitted
proposals featuring everything from state-of-the-art spas to
Formula 1 race tracks.
Not quite empty canvas: Singapore’s
soon-to-be-developed Marina Bayfront
The Singapore government will choose developers for the two
sites in March, and work will begin in mid-2006, at which time it
is hoped other hotel companies will build upscale properties to the
tune of $5 billion. The projects, to open in 2009, will turn this
traditionally popular spot for business into a
mega-destination.
Nassau
The Bahamas
Last April, the Baha Mar Development Co. took over
management and operation of the Nassau Beach Hotel, the Radisson
Cable Beach Resort and the Wyndham Nassau ResortCrystal Palace
Casino, all sitting on 3,000 feet of beach in Nassau, the capital
city of the Bahamas. In November, Baha Mar announced the properties
will be replaced by a $1.6 billion project what company
chairman/CEO Sarkis Izmirlian calls a “resort metropolis” that will
break ground in 2007 for completion in 2010.
Partners in the upcoming development include Harrah’s
Entertainment, which will open the 1,000-room Caesars Baha
Mar, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which will offer a
700-room Westin, a 700-room Sheraton, a 300-room
St. Regis and a 300-room W Hotel.
A Bliss spa, the Caribbean’s largest, will be part of the
project.
Also in the plans are a 20-acre water park; a Jack
Nicklaus-designed 18-hole golf course; a Caribbean village with
restaurants and entertainment venues; and 200,000 square feet of
meeting space. Baha Mar instantly will become the largest
hospitality development in the Caribbean, according to
Izmirlian.
Branson Landing
Branson, Mo.
Is Branson ready to expand beyond its family-oriented
country music image? Hilton Hotels Corp. thinks so, which is why
the company plans to manage both the hotels and the convention
center to be built as part of the city’s $425 million Branson
Landing development.
The 220,000-square-foot Branson Convention
Center, to stretch 1.5 miles along Lake Taneycomo, will be
the linchpin of the project. The facility will offer a
23,000-square-foot ballroom and two 50,000-square-foot exhibit
halls. In addition, the boutique-style 233-room Hilton
Promenade at Branson Landing will open in July with 2,000
square feet of its own meeting space, to be followed by the
293-room Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel in
spring 2007. Also in the plans are an outside events area called
Town Hall for up to 5,000 people. Shopping and restaurant space
will measure 450,000 square feet and include 110 individual units.
A promenade will stretch along the river the entire length of the
property .
“We see potential here,” says Kenneth M. Smith, Hilton’s senior
vice president, Mountain and Central operations. “Branson is
affordable and very popular, but it has only one market niche.
Everyone felt that what it needed was a world-class convention
center with a headquarters hotel.”