InterContinental Hotels Group & Thai Chareon Corp. Multi-Brand Deal in Asia Pacific

Source: hotelsmag.com

http://www.hotelsmag.com/article/CA6696658.html?industryid=47562

IHG Signs Multi-Brand Deal With TCC

– Hotels, 9/14/2009 10:39:00 AM

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) announces the signing of a deal with leading Thai conglomerate TCC (Thai Chareon Corp.) to convert and rebrand four existing hotels, which adds nearly 1,500 rooms to IHG’s Asia Pacific portfolio.

The hotels are located in Australia, China and Japan, and will carry the InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts and Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts brands.

“We are confident that the four properties added to our portfolio will do well operating under the various IHG brands. We look to IHG’s management experience, brand portfolio and commitment to the hospitality industry in Asia Pacific to ensure the success of our partnership,” says Khun Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, founder and chairman of TCC.

TCC’s businesses cover various sectors including beverages, property, industrial trading & consumer products and agro-related business as well as insurance and leasing. Presently, TCC is the owner of InterContinental Singapore. With this new agreement, TCC will have a total of five IHG properties in its portfolio.

Additionally, TCC and IHG will finalize a strategic cooperation agreement for future management opportunities in Asia Pacific.

As TCC moves to fortify its property business, this alliance will see IHG working closely with TCC on more hotel assets in Asia Pacific region.

“We are delighted to win TCC’s confidence in our brands. This partnership allows us to bring to bear the strength and scale of IHG brand and systems to drive operational performance of the hotels and deliver returns,” says Jan Smits, managing director, IHG Asia Australasia.

The four hotels in the agreement comprise:

1.      InterContinental Adelaide – conversion from the Hyatt Adelaide. This 367-room property is ideally located in the Adelaide Central Business District. It is adjacent to the Adelaide Convention Center, the Adelaide Casino and the Adelaide Festival Centre. Refurbishment works are planned for the property.

2.      ANA Crowne Plaza Kobe – currently a franchised Crowne Plaza hotel, the 592-room property will join IHG’s Japan managed hotel portfolio.

3.      Crowne Plaza Kunming City Center – conversion from the current Banks Hotel. The 285-room property is 15 minutes away from the Kunming Airport and enjoys a city-center location. An extensive scope of works is planned for the property.

4.      Holiday Inn Kunming City Center – conversion from the current Sakura Kunming Hotel. This property has 235 rooms and will undergo major works prior to branding as a Holiday Inn. The hotel is located in the city’s financial and commercial district.

Urban Entertainment Architect: Zark Fatah

source: http://www.condominiums.com/condomonde/condomonde0/condomonde40.htm

The Don Juan Condo Code Si Si Penaloza talks to Nightlife Bon Vivant Zark Fatah on his Fabulous New East End Digs
	Toronto’s come a long way in variations on the “ultimate bachelor pad” theme. I remember when the terms “utilitarian, vermin-free, furnished in Early Ikea” used to pass for progressive bachelor living. These days, with singles playing the field longer than ever, it pays to invest in sophisticated style – even if it means going solo on that high-end sectional.  Of course, one Toronto bachelor has taken this investment in personal style to a whole new level. Enter Zark Fatah, social entrepreneur and nightlife architect extraordinaire, whose name is synonymous with all things hip and hot. Ten years ago, he was a bartender at clubs like Fluid and the Guvernment. Today, his company, Zark Inc. spearheads six businesses. And of course, there’s the fact that he’s on too many most eligible and best-dressed lists to mention.  With five of his six Zarkinc businesses on or near King St. W. – the Century Room nightclub, Atelier, restaurants Blowfish and Doku 15 and the Hammam spa, it’s no surprise Fatah grew wary of living where he worked. The ICON condo development on Wellington, his first Toronto real estate acquisition, put him right in the middle of the action. With his businesses thriving and firmly entrenched in the downtown scene, the impresario of King West looked east for a sanctuary to call home. Of course, his must not be a mere dwelling. His must be the signature of a lifestyle itself. It doesn’t take long to realize Fatah isn’t your run-of-the-mill property-buyer. Upon his first viewing of his current home at The Broadview Lofts, there was a considerable Gulp Factor – a kind of gulp-in-your-throat “I Have to Have It” sort of deal. He recalls, “I walked in and was blown away by the expanse of open space and spectacular views. It was the kind of space where I could really import the best creative possible. And the fact that I could see panoramic skylines sealed the deal.” The view, as any man on a meteoric rise can tell you, is everything. Fatah explains further, “I had seen about a dozen loft spaces all over the city before seeing this one; I knew as soon as I saw it that I could make any ambitious design idea work here as it’s such an open concept, raw space.” As founder of entertainment empire Zarkinc and Prototype Design Lab, “a design-and-build company” in Mississauga, Fatah has made it his business to set social and design trends in the city, importing the best experiences of his travels to the heart of Toronto. And, as a man who likes to have a hand in everything, his own company, Prototype Design Lab, produced a lot of the fixtures and fittings for his marquee properties, including the signature metal steam “spout” of Hammam’s gorgeous steam room.       Featuring soaring 21-foot ceilings, a mezzanine that feels like a true second floor, floor to ceiling warehouse style windows, two south facing terraces, two full bathrooms – this pad has James Bond written all over it. At 1,424 square feet, Fatah definitely had room to flex his design muscles. The first thing he decided to do was drop a Versailles-sized, gleaming black glass chandelier from the altitudinous ceiling. Seriously. When this man dresses to impress, it doesn’t stop at mere shoulder pads. The drama of the stark black glass against a towering, textured Baroque ivory and vanilla wall treatment creates the key signatures in the decadent dining room.  In choosing a dining room set, Fatah went for a Valentino-Meets-Gothic Cowboy kind of thing, and to great effect I might add. Heavy black empire chairs get the royal treatment with sumptuous fabric and silver rodeo studs. And, if conversation ever flags around that big dining table, the two storey panoramic views provide endless talking points. “It’s a different energy when you wake up and you see water and the skyline,” Fatah elaborates. “It just opens your mind.” Fatah designed the space to be functional and purposeful without needless embellishment. His main attraction to modern and minimalist décor? Large, spare spaces lend themselves to entertaining – an activity that lies at the heart of the bachelor lifestyle. Guests to his home no doubt enjoy the HDTV, as Fatah invested in that most ubiquitous electronic accoutrements of bachelorhood: the flat screen plasma television. Although Fatah’s looks gigantic to me, rivaling the size of an exit sign on the Gardiner Expressway. Nowadays, fashionable bachelors invest in the same consumer culture that has historically been the mainstay of women. Men cultivate their homes and spending money on them in ways that only women used to. From the way they customize floor plans to the way they accessorize, their choices reveal a lot about their ideals of masculinity.  With the Broadview Lofts, The Sorbara Group caters to the architecturally educated consumer, those who desire just the right balance of history and modernity. Heritage savvy buyers won over by tongue & groove wood ceilings were equally wowed by the gorgeous exposed brick walls. The builder retained much of the building’s original structure and materials, an approach that appealed to Fatah. Active in real estate development, investment and management, The Sorbara Group has been involved in the GTA’s most successful residential communities including The Village of Brooklin, Sherwood Village, Britannia Meadows and Bankside in Mississauga, as well as Tanglewood in Oakville. No stranger to Toronto’s east side, the company’s landmark Corktown project, the Brewery Loft on Sumach Street, is now regarded as a Toronto classic. Collectively, The Broadview Lofts community enjoys a beautifully landscaped central square, underground parking, a party room and roof deck patio. The builders also engaged the contemporary palate with their penthouses, adding two floors of brand new lofts to their original, turn-of-the-century Rexall drug warehouse, for those like Fatah, who yearn for a truly contemporary space. Loft living is all about the city and its myriad sights and sounds – endless choices and possibilities. Fatah loves that his loft is actually part of three vibrant neighbourhoods: Queen & Broadview, Leslieville and The Studio District. Each nurturing its own vibrant and unique character. Hip cafés and restaurants. Funky shopping everywhere you turn, all within walking distance. Not to mention the close proximity to Queen Street and Toronto’s major artery, the Don Valley Parkway. A bachelor pad is a cultural icon. It has earned mythic status. And it has essential ingredients. The quintessential pad is masculine, minimalist and, in the best-case scenario, cleaned by a maid. There is leather, hard exotic wood and fine wine. The views are befitting of a emerging master of the universe, but one touch remote can kill the lights, lower the shades and turn on the David Bowie before a girl knows what hit her. So is there a downside to living so high? When I ask the question, Fatah stifles a simultaneous laugh and a blush. “You wouldn’t think so, but there is,” he confides. “Girls seem to get really attached to the idea of not necessarily leaving. I brought a girl back here once who, as soon as she walked in the door asked, ‘So when am I moving in?’” Indeed, this may seem like the Hollywood version of a bachelor pad, but it’s just a little place he likes to call home.  THE BROADVIEW LOFTS: 68 Broadview Ave., on the northwest corner of Broadview and Eastern Ave.  Builder: The Sorbara Group. A six-storey building. The first five storeys will be a restored brick warehouse. A new five-storey extension will have a facade of steel and glass.  Amenities: rooftop patio and large party/media room. www.broadviewlofts.com

Entertainment Visionaire: Sam Nazarian

source: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2008/id2008021_569245.htm

BUSINESSWEEK –> BUSINESS INNOVATION –> February 1, 2008

Sam Nazarian: Emperor of Cool

His L.A. nightclubs and restaurants may be A-list only, but Nazarian makes sure business sense isn’t lost in all the glitz. Up next: boutique hotels

by Christopher Palmeri

Nazarian has signed designer Philippe Starck to an exclusive, multiyear contract to design hotels and restaurants in North America.

 

Sam Nazarian’s club, the 90-person Hyde, attracts a defiantly A-list clientele—and is a regular feature in celebrity gossip Web sites such as TMZ.com as a result.

A bouncer clad in black stands guard at the door. Sushi knives, dipped in white plastic and encased in Plexiglas, serve as cocktail tables. Huge photos of models with bright red lips cover the walls. Below, stylishly dressed diners indulge on pricey treats such as Kobe beef filets with foie gras and watermelon cucumber mojitos.

Katsuya, at the legendary intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles, is the latest trendy stop in a mini-empire of cool created by entrepreneur Sam Nazarian. The 32-year-old Los Angeles native now has four nightclubs, two Katsuya sushi restaurants—with two more opening this year—and a movie production company (Down in the Valley, Mr. Brooks) under his SBE Entertainment Group holding company banner.

ALL THE TAKINGS

Next? Boutique hotels. Nazarian is opening two over the next year: the SLS in Los Angeles in August and a remodeling of the Ritz Plaza in Miami Beach due to open in early 2009. On the drawing board is a complete reworking of the famed Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, which Nazarian acquired last year along with the investment firmStockbridge Real Estate Partners. “We’re building the Chateau Marmont of our generation,” Nazarian says, referring to the legendary Los Angeles hotel that’s been the site of countless Hollywood soirées and scandals.

Entrepreneurship runs in Nazarian’s family. His father, Younes, is an Iranian-born immigrant who made a fortune starting companies from construction to high tech. Sam dropped out of New York University to launch a wireless telephone company, Platinum Wireless. It’s still in business, but Nazarian got bitten by the real estate bug, and then lured into the world of nightclubs. Opening his first venue in 2003, his Los Angeles clubs, including Privilege and Hyde, next door to each other on the Sunset Strip, became famous for attracting the famous, including A-list starlets such as Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Lindsey Lohan. Nazarian himself had a cameo on the hot HBO show Entourage last year. And his clubs—especially the tiny, 90-person Hyde—have regularly been featured in celebrity gossip Web sites such as TMZ.com. As for B-listers such as Tara Reid and Bobby Brown, their rejections at the door show up online, too. “We probably got more hits per square foot than any place on Earth,” Nazarian says.

Nazarian says his innovation was to treat nightclubbing like a business. Typically, club owners round up money from wealthy investors who want to tell their friends they own a piece of a nightclub. The owners rarely returned much in profits and were quick to move on to the next project. “It was an ego thing for investors,” Nazarian says. “They’d be in business for a year, and whether they made money didn’t matter.” Nazarian sought to change that by running all facets of the business in-house—and treating clubs as a long-term business. Rather than lease his venue out to promoters on certain nights, a common practice in the industry, Nazarian acquired Bolthouse Productions, and several other top club promoters in town. That keeps them from sending their regular customers to other venues—and Nazarian gets to keep all the takings of any given night.

Nazarian has signed designer Philippe Starck to an exclusive, multiyear contract to design hotels and restaurants in North America.

CAPTURING THE “COOL FACTOR.”

And to keep up with the fickle crowd, Nazarian continually redesigns his establishments, as often as every six months. Privilege, now under renovation, will reopen as an upscale supper club this summer. So far, Nazarian has managed to keep up with the in-crowd, opening a “pop-up” version of Hyde at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. for example. He’ll do that again at this weekend’s Super Bowl in Phoenix.

To give his properties even more star power, Nazarian pursued designer Philippe Starck for more than a year before signing him to an exclusive, multiyear contract to design hotels and restaurants in North America. Starck designs the interiors for the budding Katsuya chain and is working on Nazarian’s three new hotel properties. When he’s in Los Angeles, Starck works out of an office in Nazarian’s low-slung, modern headquarters on Beverly Boulevard. Nazarian admits negotiating new projects with the famous designer can often be a battle. “He always wants the best,” Nazarian says. “Stone, tiles, fabric, everything.” And while for the most part it seems like Nazarian humors his French collaborator, he has also found some savvy ways to offset that cost. Through a partnership with Italian furniture maker Cassina, he’ll be selling the couches, tables, and desks that Starck designed for the new Los Angeles hotel.

Nazarian wants to be more than just a younger version of Ian Schrager, the former Studio 54 promoter who launched the boutique hotel craze in the 1980s with properties such as the Morgans Hotel in Manhattan (MHGC) and the Delano in Miami Beach. He plans to link his various establishments with a common computer system so guests can present their room key and use it to charge drinks, dinner, or hotel services wherever they are. He’s also looking to advise other businesses, such as sports stadium owners and private jet operators, on how to capture what he calls the “cool factor.” Nazarian says he’s been talking with stadium management company Anschutz Entertainment Group to find ways to enhance the dining experience at Staples Center in Los Angeles, where the Lakers and Clippers basketball teams play. “People are paying $2,200 for floor seats and getting served a chicken sandwich,” he says disdainfully. Sounds like another opportunity for Kobe beef.

There are currently two Katsuya sushi restaurants, with two more due to open this year.

Hospitality Design Trends of 2009

source: hotelsmag.com

http://www.hotelsmag.com/blog/380000638/post/1920039992.html?nid=3457&rid=1899835782

Hospitality Design Trend Forecast 2009  (by Roger Hill)

January 30, 2009

I spent this week at the ALIS conference in San Diego – enjoying the sun as well as some not-so-sunny industry forecasts. While waiting at O’Hare airport, I found inspiration at the magazine stand and decided to ask two of my esteemed colleagues to do some 2009 trend forecasting.
 
I have asked Julius van Heek and Meg Prendergast, two seasoned hospitality design professionals who are on the forefront of balancing design trends with clients’ needs, to share what they see on the design horizon this year.

1. What colors, fabrics and treatments do you expect to see a lot of in 2009, and what is standing out?

Prendergast: I still see the minimal use of patterns in interior design. Rich, lustrous fabrics are always a preferred direction since they add such depth to a room or space.

Technology is helping develop really cool treatments to standard products. I am particularly excited about micro-lasered leather for a new look.

van Heek: I expect a resurgence and spin on the muted tones that we experienced in the mid to late 80’s. Informally, I call these “Colorado colors” from the boom days of big ski residences. Look for muted tones of mushrooms, beiges, warmer/softer tones based on the browns, peaches to soft rusts/bronzes.

The evolution of “green/sustainability” will compound this color trend. The extrapolation and abstractions of pattern based upon nature’s influence will continue. Think sky (clouds), sand (color and texture) and flowers (gradation of one basic color).

I also expect that within this overall muted color/pattern palette, we will see a pop of vibrant color and/or pattern. Think of a beautiful, natural field with the pop of wildflowers coming through; or the calming effect of being underwater while being surprised by colorful tropical fish swimming by. Consider accents of Aubergine, deep purples, intense blues, hot reds.
 
2. What is catching your eye as a trend?

Prendergast: At every design meeting, I hear that modern and sleek is still top-of-mind, but with a softer edge.

3. Do you have a particular favorite trend of 2009?

Prendergast: Clients and, in turn, their guests, want spaces that work. Comfortable spaces that provide a lot of user-friendly flexibility seem to be key.

My personal favorite, however, is an art program that really adds character to a project. This is an investment that brings quality and value to any project and really sets the tone from a design standpoint. Moreover, beautiful art transforms mere spaces into places where we want to spend time. For the hotelier who wants to ensure that guests spend time in the lobby, an art program is the best way to go.

van Heek: I would say it is the gradation of color concept discussed previously. It is a good example of maintaining subtlety while still attracting attention to a wall, furniture piece or flooring material.

From a technological standpoint, I love what companies are able to do with laser cutting and/or etching. I’ve seen it in porcelain tiles, marbles/granites, leathers and glass and it seems to be an effective technique to add “subtle glam” to tried and true/basic material. Click here to see some examples of how etching can transform the basic to the extraordinary.

4. What are your clients asking for from a design standpoint?

Prendergast: It’s no surprise – ROI, ROI, ROI! Large or small, luxury or economy, this economic environment mandates solutions that will help provide long-term returns on investment for ownership.

5. What design trends do you predict will be dictated by the economy?

van Heek: If it is a high ticket concept/item, it better last and/or get better over time (think leather or beautiful wood flooring aging and getting more beautiful over time.) These pieces, however, provide amazing value and are worth the investment.

A good design team also always has their eye on ease of maintenance, which makes design cost-effective in the long term.

Finally, the line between work and play has been obliterated (not just blurred) in this economy and needs to be reflected in design. This trend started with the cell phone, migrated further by the Blackberry and has now been destroyed with the world economic situation. Business hotel and resort hotel design has meshed forever as a result of the times.

6. What design trick is your favorite “bang-for-the-buck” application?

Prendergast: Layers of gypsum board for a good way to add detail without the cost of millwork. There is also a lot of mileage to be gotten out of grout patterns without the hassle or expense of too many different stone materials.

van Heek: I always employ what I call “experience designing,” which entails thinking of the person who may be using the space, how they might use the space (flexibility) and then accommodating as many varied needs with the physical parameters of the space. When a designer approaches a project with this philosophy, the opportunities for value-engineering are more easily exposed.

Posted by Roger Hill on January 30, 2009