Ferragamo Resort Bali

[arirangboy]

Italian fashion house plans Bali development
by Adrian Batten

Florence-based Ferragamo, one of Italy’s premier and few remaining family owned fashion houses founded by Salvatore Ferragamo in 1929 is on the brink of completing successful negotiations for a 4 hectare beach side hotel and villa property on Sanur’s Mertasari beach, Bali. Ferragamo was the first design house ever to enter the hotel field as an owner/manager, in a sector now cluttered by dozens of top designer brands, whose names include, Armani, Bulgari, Cerruti, Krizia, Christian Lacroix, Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta and Versace to name but a few. Ferragamo entered the hotel market launching their hotel management company, Lungarno Alberghi SPA, in 1995 headed by Leonardo Ferragamo, the founding patriarch’s second eldest son. The company currently operates seven properties, six of which are in Florence, one in the neighbouring Tuscan countryside, and another in Rome. What is unusual about Lungarno Hotels is the company are themselves owner- managers and not simply engaged in a fashion branding exercise in collaboration with a traditional hotel management chain, as is the case with Bulgari and the Marriott Group for example, who opened their own Bali property on the Bukit Peninsula in 2005, and as is the case with most other designer-brand hotels. Quite how investors view the trend of high profile fashion label teamed up with hotel chains remains an open question, many analysts believing it is a risky strategy, particularly with the current dramatic rise in oil prices. At the time of Bulgari’s announcement of its $140 million hotel tie-up with Marriott it may be recalled that its stock plunged 5%. At Ferragamo, the difference, says Leonardo Ferragamo “is we are on a mission to build through our own hotels and connected structures, a model of customised care for elite world travelers along the lines of the culturally sensitive “Lifestyle District”, overlooking the Arno in Florence”. What you won’t see is Ferragamo logos all over the property. “It’s about diversification, not brand promotion”, he adds. If the Ferragamo deal goes through, as it is 99% scheduled to do according to the developers, it will be the ultimate accolade of Sanur’s return as a resort of choice for some of the world’s most socially prominent and discerning travellers. “I’ve been a frequent visitor to Sanur since the glory days of late 1960’s and through the 1970’s”, says Alec Campbell, a London-based art collector and landowner. “Anyone who’s stayed at the Lungarno or The Gallery in Florence will readily understand what this means for Sanur. I still enjoy Sanur, but it did go to sleep for a decade or so. This puts it right back on the map.” The “glory days” to which Campbell refers is the period from 1967 to the mid 1980’s when the world’s great, the good and the not-so-good all beat a path to frolic in Sanur’s iconic Tanjung Sari hotel, a prototype for Bali Style and what became the founding model for tropical boutique hotels world over.

“There was a Decameronesque flavour to it all, bit like the Almanach de Gotha crossed with Burke’s Peerage plus the Fortune 500, set in a tropical paradise”, Campbell recalls. Whether or not Sanur’s return to fashion will be quite that stellar in what remains of Bali’s “tropical paradise” only the future will tell, but Bali’s first and most traditional resort seems destined for a significant uptick in investment and visitors. This prospect does not, however, excite everyone. One long-established villa owner, whose views would be fairly representative of many Sanurites observed, “600 new hotel rooms for Sanur will mean changes, not all of them necessarily for the better”. Nevertheless, for better or worse, change is already well on its way. In April of this year Managing Director of Grand Pacific Properties Ltd (GPP), Victoria Tahir, confirmed agreement between GPP and Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific Pty. Ltd. for a new 5-star Regent beach-side property to be built on a 4 hectare site in the Semawang area of Sanur at a cost of some US$100 million to open in 2010. The new hotel will consist of 150 rooms and 50 villas, each equipped with a private swimming pool. The company would also be developing a further villa complex to be called Regent Residences on a property close by the new Regent Bali. The announcement marks the return of the Regent brand to Indonesia.

Regent once managed a 5-star property in the Kuningan area in Jakarta, now run by the Four Seasons. Grand Pacific Properties is part of the Jakarta-based Mayaparda Business Group, who own the Mayaparda Bank, Duty Free Shoppers in Indonesia, plus property and healthcare interests.

Work has already begun on a new property by InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), expanding its Bali portfolio with the agreement with PT Restu Maharani to manage the InterContinental Bali Sanur Beach Resort to open late 2009. The new Sanur InterCon is to be located on a 7 hectare beach front property across the road from the new Regent at Semawang Beach and will have 104 rooms, as well as 54 private villas, all featuring private pools and private landscaped courtyards. The resort is to be designed by architects Eco-id and will feature an all-day beach front restaurant.

The new Holiday Inn Resort in Tuban, formerly the Balihai Resort & Spa, is a 200-room property located on 3 hectares of landscaped beach front land and will be extensively refurbished and managed by IHG on behalf of PT Menara Perdana, and marks the entry of Holiday Inn into Bali for the first time. The advent of IHG into the Tuban area is also an encouraging indication of makeovers to come for the ageing inventory of group travel properties that predominates in the Tuban area.

[AceN]

Yay ...Great!! Thanx arirang

[worldsuperstar]

great, after Bvulgari, now Ferragamo . got the rendering yet ?

[=NaNdA=]

kan udah ad thread Bali Projects & Development..

[XxRyoChanxX]

wow!!! Ferragamo? nicee....