Bvlgari Resort Dubai targets year-end launch

THE FIRST BVGLARI HOTEL in the Middle East is on track to open on Dubai’s Jumeira Bay Island at the end of 2017. The Bvlgari Resort and Residences, developed by Meraas Holding, will feature 100 rooms and suites and 20 residential villas with road access and private pools.

Highlights include an exclusive sushi restaurant on the hotel’s top floor with a capacity for just eight guests and six independent restaurants located around the resort’s marina promenade. Other F&B concepts include the signature Bulgari Bar and Restaurant serving Italian cuisine, a more casual Bulgari café, a branch of the brand’s gourmet Il Ciocollato chocolate store and a pool and beach bar.

It will raise the luxury stakes with Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach nearby and other high-end operators, with rates that could be the highest in the city.

To date the luxury brand has opened hotels in London and Milan, a resort in Bali and restaurants in Tokyo. Two Chinese projects are due to complete this year – a hotel and residences in Shanghai and a hotel in Beijing – and a property is due to open in Moscow in 2019. Robert Anderson