If there’s one thing Dubai has a lot of, it’s eye-wateringly-fancy hotels – and the emirate’s resort game is about to get even hauter, with a Bulgari Resort and Residences opening later this year on Jumeirah Bay Island (which yes, is a brand new island).
Oh, and that’s not all, when it opens later this year, the Bulgari hotel will be Dubai’s most expensive hotel: “You can count on the fact that they [the hotel room rates] will be by far the highest in the market,” Bulgari’s executive vice president Silvio Ursini told Gulf Business.
“We think the facilities here, the beach and vicinity will justify that, but also the size of the rooms which will be very generous.”
If the rooms are “by far” the most expensive, the price will have to outstrip the Burj Al Arab:as an example, we just searched for a room on February 1 at the Burj, and the cheapest room is a touch more than Dhs10,000 a night.
– It will be smack bang in the middle of Jumeirah Bay: a six million square foot mixed-use island being developed by Meraas (the people behind City Walk, The Beach etc).
– Jumeirah Bay will be accessible from Jumeirah Beach Road, via a new 300 metre bridge.There will be homes on the manmade island, as well as the hotel. Here’s where it’s located (as you can see, it’s basically directly opposite Mercato Mall):
– Back to the resort: it will stretch over a whopping 1.7 million square feet (which is more than a fifth of Dubai Mall’s internal space, just as an example).
– Restaurant-wise, there will be six restaurants along the marina promenade, as well as a sushi restaurant with a capacity for just eight people (now that’s exclusive: what, will Jiro of Dreams of Sushi fame be the chef there?).
– The resort will have 101 rooms and suites in the main building, as well as 20 hotel villas (which we imagine will be off-the-charts pricey).
– Want to live on the island permanently? Well, there will be 165 apartments on the manmade seafront spot, eight penthouses and 15 mansions. There will be six apartment buildings with apartments ranging from one- to four-bedrooms.
We’ll keep you posted when we know more – but if you want to get an idea of what the vibe at the resort might be, take a look at the other Bulgari resorts around the world, there are currently Bulgari hotels in Milan, Bali and London.
Here’s what the terrace of one of the villas at the Bali one looks like…