25 more Capital clubs planned, says Enshaa

Dubai’s Enshaa, the developer behind the Capital Club brand, is aiming to open more 25 venues, with Asia and Africa the main focus for expansion, its CEO has revealed.

Signature Club International owns, develops and manages premier private business clubs and currently operates the Capital Club Dubai in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Capital Club Bahrain in the Financial Harbour in Manama.

Membership is strictly by invitation only and limited to around 1,500 members, drawn from the leading businesses in the region.

Enshaa acquired 100 percent of Signature Clubs International in November 2009 and the CEO, Raza Jafar, told Arabian Business he is planning up to 25 clubs, but did not give a timeframe for the expansion plans.

“The Capital Club  is part of our hospitality growth and we are very active in growing that business. We are expanding more in Africa and Asia and our ambition and target is to have 25 Capital Clubs across the globe.”

Enshaa is also developing the Palazzo Versace Dubai resort, which was scheduled to open five years ago but is now likely to open within the

“We are just waiting for the road access in the next six to 12 weeks. By November-ish, in six to 12 weeks we should be able to open up [the resort]. We will have a soft opening,” Jafar said.

He also added that the opening is the start of a rapid roll out of Versace-branded resorts, with Enshaa planning up to 10 more resorts over the next decade.

“Our company has the right of first refusal for a global rollout of Palazzo Versace, so we are exploring at the moment the development management and hotel management of several projects as we speak. We are exploring Europe, we are exploring Asia.

"They are two areas we are actively exploring. My ambition and dream would be to have ten hotels operating around the globe with the Palazzo Versace brand and managed by us,” Jafar said.