As Hakkasan transitions from being a restaurant and nightlife brand to a true hospitality player, all eyes are on its first hotel, in Dubai. Group president Nick McCabe discusses the company’s plans and sets out the importance of the development
As more hotel brands look to make their mark in Dubai, it is not unusual for executives to assign a certain level of overwrought hype, and roll out the hyperboles.
However, when the importance of a hotel development is laid out in the measured way that Hakkasan Group president Nick McCabe does, observers can only sit up and listen.
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“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,” he tells Hotelier Middle East.
“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.”
What he is speaking about — ‘that hotel’ — is for once a landmark development which may actually live up to that billing; a flagship property that will be raised for all and sundry to see. Hakkasan’s hotel on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai really is that important.
Announced in September 2013, the hotel was supposed to start taking shape last year, although McCabe tells Hotelier that a more measured approach to conceptualising the property means construction is now likely to start this summer.
Set to open in 2017, it will be Hakkasan’s first hotel in the world, building on its successful international portfolio of restaurants and nightlife, including in the Middle East.
With the company’s roots in Las Vegas and presence in major gateway cities such as London and Paris, it may have seemed strange for the company to make its hospitality debut in Dubai. However, as McCabe explains, it all came down to the right opportunity.
“Dubai has been booming for a number of years now,” he says. “Hotels are in demand, especially high end luxury products.
“Because of the piece of real estate we were able to get access to on Palm island — which is just a stunning site for a hotel — the decision was made to develop a hotel there, and I think it’s the right one.”
Located on the west crescent of the man-made archipelago, the new hotel will be located a few plots down from One&Only The Palm. The property’s developer is Tasameem Real Estate LLC, an Abu Dhabi-based investment company, which is also the owner of Hakkasan itself.
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