While its primary focus may be its debut property in Dubai, Hakkasan is already eyeing up other major cities around the world for further hotels, although they will be very different in nature.
As Hakkasan Group president Nick McCabe recently explained to Hotelier Middle East, its first hotel, on the West Crescent of Palm Jumeirah, will be important in establishing the company as a name in hospitality, as it looks to build on its restaurant and nightlife successes.
However, just as its existing F&B empire spans the globe with different offerings, it will look to evolve as it branches out into other major cities
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“The Dubai hotel will very much be a resort brand: it’s on the beach, it’s waterfront, so that will inform the design,” said McCabe. “The city-centric Hakkasan hotel which will come through, whether the first one will be in London or New York, will have a very different feel; more urban-focused and very different type of layout.
“So I think fairly soon after we get started in Dubai, our goal will be to secure a pretty major city site and develop a city-centric hotel.”
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Nevertheless, with the Dubai hotel not set to open until 2017, and construction likely to start this summer, the company’s attention is currently on Palm Jumeirah.
“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,” added McCabe.
Coming into the hotel industry with F&B experience, including in hotels, under its belt, the company will also look to maximise its expertise in this sphere, bucking recent trends and avoiding any outsourcing.
“Our idea is that if we build a Hakkasan hotel there’s going to be an expectation of fantastic F&B to go with it. That doesn’t just mean a Hakkasan restaurant. That means for us leveraging all of the brand-building we’ve been doing in our restaurant and nightlife portfolio,” explained McCabe.
“Making sure that to the extntent we can we can control every single restaurant, bar and nightlife component ourselves. Because we feel like we know our business very well.”
Look out for more from our interview with McCabe in the March issue of Hotelier Middle.
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