Hakkasan's Dubai Palm hotel 'central' to ambitions

The president of Hakkasan Group has stressed the importance of the company’s resort project on Palm Jumeirah, set to become the first hotel for the restaurant and nightlife giant.

Speaking to Hotelier Middle East, Nick McCabe detailed how the company, which is owned by Abu Dhabi's Tasameem Real Estate, is currently assessing prospective designs for the property, after six prominent designers were invited to submit their ideas.

Located on the West Crescent of the Palm, the hotel is set to have around 100 rooms, although no firm figure has been set yet, and Hakkasan is aiming to open it in 2017. It will be managed by MGM Hakkasan Hospitality, the joint venture formed between MGM Resorts International and Hakkasan Group last year.

“The step from nightlife and restaurants into hotels is one that a lot of hospitality groups want to make, but it’s not very easy,” McCabe said.

“We’re very focused and understand this first hotel in Dubai will really make our brand in the context of becoming a large hotel company.

“There is a lot of expectation around it because of who we are and because of what we’ve done in other areas in terms of raising the bar in restaurants and nightlife. So we as a company are very focused on that hotel in terms of the future. The Middle East really is central to our plans over the next few years.”

McCabe added that Dubai had been chosen for the first hotel primarily due to the desirability of “piece of real estate” obtained on the Palm, although Hakkasan was looking to gateway cities such as London, Paris, New York and LA for further hotels.

With regards to the size of the hotel, likely to be around 100 rooms, he detailed why the company has such a small number in mind.

“Realistically our view is that Hakkasan should have an impeccable service," he said. "It should be very personalised, and in order to achieve that you need to keep the room count fairly low. This is not about building a 300-, 400-, 500-room hotel.

“We look to be delivering a level of service that would be common for all our restaurants and nightlife, and it’s [about] working out how we carry that through the hotel and how many we can realistically accommodate while not sacrificing the service standard.”