Damac Towers by Paramount scheduled for Q4 2016

Damac Towers by Paramount, which is a cluster of four towers connected by a shared podium consisting of the Paramount Hotel Dubai and three Damac-managed serviced apartments by Damac Maison, is on schedule to open in quarter four of 2016, Hotelier has been told.

Damac Properties senior vice president Niall McLoughlin said in an interview with sister title PMV Middle East: “We have four towers going up, 250m-high each. Three of the towers will be Damac-managed service apartments, and one of the towers will be the Paramount Hotel & Resorts hotel. [Within that], half will be what you’d know as a standard hotel room inside and half will be serviced apartments managed by Paramount Hotel & Resorts, and all four towers will share the centre podium.”

McLoughlin explained that the Paramount-themed experience hotel is not a theme park attraction. He said: “It’s not in your face. The idea is that it’s not a horse’s head under your duvet when you walk in and Marlon Brando staring back at you off the wall. It’s more a feel and an ambience from the movies throughout the years.”

Revealing more about the project, McLoughlin said: “They use a lot of media-mapping, so there will be big 30-, 40-, 50-foot screens in the lobby area, so when you walk in in the morning, they’re using lots of yellows and greens and light in there, but by the evening you can change the media-mapping.

“So in the restaurant where you had breakfast you may go back in the evening, but it will be much darker – browns and blacks and grays, creating a completely different ambience – and they’re doing that with the scents, and they’re doing that with the sounds as well.”

According to McLoughlin, guests can watch any of the 3,500 movies that Paramount has produced in over a 100 years. He said: “It’s the ambience, it’s the feel and it’s the experience of being in that environment – that Hollywood, California cool, rather than, ’Oh my God, I’ve stepped onto the set of Mission Impossible 4’, or, ’Oh my God, I’ve stepped onto the set of Star Trek’.

“If you think about it, some of the people are going to be living in this project, so if it was in your face movie-esque everywhere you went, it might be a bit tiresome after a while. To go there for a week’s holiday would be one thing, but to live there for five or 10 years, it would be a bit intense after a while. It’s a bit more classic: it’s five-star classy Dubai experience –so that’s why it’s much more about scents and feelings.”

That’s not to say Paramount is not going to have fun with the hotel; all the staff name badges will have nods to the film industry with titles such as directors, and cast and crew.

McLoughlin concluded: “They’re going to open the doors in Q4 next year. It’s going up well, and now that summer’s over we’re at full work hours.”