Four Seasons announces new Kuwait hotel for 2017
Four Seasons and Alshaya have announced plans for a Four Seasons hotel in Kuwait.
The Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait at Burj Alshaya will open in early 2017 as part of Alshaya’s new Burj Alshaya mixed-use development.
Featuring two glass towers, the 140,000 m2 Burj Alshaya complex is set to cater to both business guests and residents. The 284-room Four Seasons Hotel will be located in Burj Alshaya’s 22-storey Eastern Tower.
The hotel will feature indoor and outdoor pools, with a poolside waterfall, greenery and outdoor cabanas.
It will also feature a spa, yoga studio and fitness centre as well as two ballrooms and a range of conference and banqueting rooms able to welcome up to 2,000 people.
The hotel will include five food and beverage offerings. The line-up includes a rooftop pan-Asian restaurant, an open-kitchen Italian restaurant, a lobby lounge, and a poolside restaurant.
Didier Jardin will be at the helm of the property as general manager. The Four Seasons veteran will be joining the hotel in Kuwait from Four Seasons Resort Mauritius at Anahita, where he led the team as resort manager.
Jardin has more than two decades of experience with the company, and has served at nine other Four Seasons properties, starting with Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea as assistant food and beverage manager as well as Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at The First Residence, Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara, Ritz-Carlton Chicago (a Four Seasons Hotel), Four Seasons Hotel New York and Four Seasons Resort Hualalai.
He gained much of his early experience in food and beverage, and then went on to receive practical training in other aspects of hotel management as the opening resort manager of Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora.
“Kuwait City is one of the most important commercial centres in the Gulf States, attracting regional and international business travellers, and a natural choice for Four Seasons as we continue to extend our presence across the Middle East,” says J. Allen Smith, president and CEO, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.
“We are excited to partner with Alshaya and mark our entry into Kuwait as part of the Burj Alshaya complex.”
In addition to the hotel in the Eastern Tower, the 43-storey Western Tower, set to open in 2018, will be the new headquarters to the Alshaya group of companies, including offices for employees of its retail franchise business - which operates 70 international retail brands in over 3,000 stores across the Middle East, North Africa, Russia, Turkey, and Europe, and which employs more than 46,000 people.
Alshaya executive chairman Mohammed Alshaya said: “The creation of this combined hotel and office development is a reflection of Alshaya’s continued investment in its home market of Kuwait.”
He added: “We are delighted to be bringing the acclaimed Four Seasons brand to Kuwait, as well as creating a world-class office environment for our employees that will support our continued growth and expansion. We are proud to contribute to Kuwait’s future in a number of ways, not only through our real estate investment in this iconic development, but also through our commitment to growing Alshaya’s private sector and through the creation of employment opportunities for local Kuwaitis.”