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Luxury brand Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, in the throes of expanding its predominantly North American portfolio into other regions of the world, confirms it will add 10 hotels (over 3,000 rooms) in 2009. This is despite construction delays on some of its projects which are a direct result of the economic downturn. Aiming to add 25 hotels (10,000 rooms) to its portfolio of 56 Fairmont hotels by 2012, the group had promised 11 additions this year.
In North America, the 150-room Fairmont Battery Wharf on Boston’s waterfront opened at the start of 2009, while the 185-room Fairmont Pittsburg, with 123,000 square feet of meeting space, is due at the end of the year. But opening of the 415-room Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver, built with the 2010 winter Olympics in mind and located next to the city’s new Conference Centre, is now delayed until 2010.
In Africa, the Mount Kenya Club (the former private haven of Hollywood movie star and club co-founder William Holden) will be rebranded a Fairmont this spring after major renovation of its 120 villas and suites. The new 157-room Fairmont Zimbali, on the spectacular north coast of South Africa’s Kwazulu-Natal, is slated for a summer 2009 opening. It offers extensive conference facilities, a Willow Stream spa, and a range of golf options.
The group’s high profile US$100-million renovation of the Savoy in London, (the hotel closed at the end of 2007 after auctioning off most of its furnishings and interior fixtures) is delayed by a few months, and is now due to be ready in the autumn. In the Middle East, opening of the 369-room Fairmont Abu Dhabi Creek – the first of two hotels that the group will operate in the UAE capital – has been delayed until the summer. In Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Makkah (Mecca), the massive 76-storey Makkah Clock Royal Tower, with 1006 rooms and 610 residences located right by Makkah’s religious heart, the Haram Mosque, remains on target for a summer opening. In Egypt, Fairmont Nile City, a 574-room business and leisure property overlooking the Nile and with views of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids, is due this summer. In China, the delayed 222-room Fairmont Beijing, originally due in 2008, will now open in autumn 2009, while a second 210-room Fairmont will open in the summer in the little-known picturesque city of Kunshan which lies in Jiangsu province between Shanghai and Suzhou. Fairmont’s total refurbishment of the iconic Peace Hotel in Shanghai has slowed, and the project, which is being untaken in partnership with Shanghai’s Jin Jiang Group, is now scheduled to be finished in 2010.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
