Macau is on its way to having its first designer hotel. Palazzo Versace Macau will be the first luxury five star hotel in the territory to be designed by one of the world’s most recognisable fashion houses, and the first Palazzo Versace in Asia.
With properties in Australia and Dubai, the company, founded in 1978 by Gianni Versace, has now formed a strategic partnership with Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) to develop and operate Palazzo Versace Macau, at SJM’s planned integrated casino resort in Cotai.
Speaking at the signing ceremony which took place at Grand Lisboa last month, Mr. Gian Giacomo Ferraris, Chief Executive Officer of Versace, said: “Palazzo Versace Macau will be a prestigious and powerful window in a priority market for us. I believe that this project will be extremely positive for the Versace brand.”
To be housed in a 20-storey exclusive tower with a built-up area of over 34,000 m2, Versace will provide the stylistic and artistic direction including the interiors, furnishings and amenities for the hotel, scheduled to open at the end of 2017.
The Palazzo will consist of up to 270 rooms and suites, one gourmet restaurant, a cutting-edge spa, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, retail space and other luxury facilities and amenities consistent with the Palazzo Versace style.
While the Versace logo can be found on a wide range of fashion apparel from sunglasses to perfume, people may be less familiar with the brand as a hotel experience. However, when Gianni Versace moved to Milan and started his designs in the 1970s, his vision always extended beyond clothing.
“He understood very early on that what his clients wanted was not only the fabulous ready-to-wear and accessories that he was presenting every season, and that they so much loved. What many of his loyal customers really wanted was to be part of a way of life, of a lifestyle that had to go beyond apparel…to live in a real Versace world, in a real Versace experience”, explained Ferraris.
The business has always been a family affair, with Gianni’s brother Santo and sister Donatella working for him until his untimely death in 1997. Since then, Donatella has continued his work designing living spaces and personalising private apartments, residential concepts and hotels.
The decision to open in Macau is based on the fact that this is where one of the brand’s best performing shops is located: “Geographically, we have been looking at Greater China for a while as this is one of the priority markets for the entire Versace business. And Macau, in particular, is where we have one of the best performing stores on a worldwide basis.
“The visibility that the Versace brand will have from a super high-quality project like this will benefit our business in Macau…and the entire region”, Versace’s Chief Executive Officer explained.
The brand will add a sixth Versace boutique to its existing five Macau stores before the opening of Palazzo Versace.
A look at the other Versace properties around the world helps to give an idea of the style we can expect, however, as Ferraris explains, “Every property is different because it interacts with the location and the people who live the experience.
So you can expect Palazzo Versace in Macau to be both consistent with, and very different from, Australia and Dubai".
"Consistent and unique: it may seem a mission impossible, but it is exactly what Ms. Versace does and has been doing brilliantly since the beginning of the Palazzo Versace journey back in 2000, when the first Palazzo Versace opened on the Gold Coast”.
Mr. Ferraris guarantees that no effort will be spared in bringing the full Versace experience to the territory.
“Wherever we are, Palazzo Versace wants to be ‘Best in Class’. And we will do our best to achieve this in Macau”.
