Boutique Design - October 2014 - 28

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boutiquedesign.com october 2014

2

3

2 Tony Ingrao's upscale
design recipe for the
apartments in the Baccarat
Hotel and Residences in
New York includes SieMatic
kitchens housing appliances bearing such brands
as Sub-Zero and Miele.

3 Other selling points in
the Baccarat apartments include living
areas with floor-to-ceiling windows and enough
room for a variety of
formal and informal
seating arrangements.

C O U R T E S Y O F B AC C A R AT
HOTEL & RE SIDENCE S

After A Great Recession-induced hiatus,
branded residences are back on the radar screens
of developers, operators and buyers. Want proof ?
Look no further than what Starwood Capital's
Barry Sternlicht is up to.
Sternlicht-the hotel industry innovator who
founded Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide
and launched its W brand (before decamping from
the hotel chain's top job in 2005)-has two branded
residences complexes either opening or about to:
one in New York and the other in South Beach.
Sternlicht has lots of company in creating
such projects, and hospitality consultant HVS
offers some compelling reasons why in its recent
report, "The Increasing Importance of Branded
Residences." First and foremost, the study notes,
such developments cater directly to high-end
travelers' demand for personalization, privacy
and pampering.
And because branded residences are usually
part of a mixed-use development that includes a
sister hotel, residents benefit from access to all of
the hotel's services, facilities and amenities, point
out HVS director Arlett Oehmichen and consultant/valuation analyst Lucy Payne. But residents
of such complexes can experience all that at a
comfortable arm's length, siloed away from the
busy-ness of the hotel and the transient feel of a
guest room.
These hybrid second homes offer yet another
major advantage, say Oehmichen and Payne:
knowing that the property will be well cared for
even when the owners aren't there. And on the
financial side of the equation, they note that
branded residences are "a relatively safe investment, given that they are a tangible asset and are
often associated with a known brand. Additionally, such investors are attracted by the design and
high-quality services associated with the concept."
Ah, yes: Design is indeed playing a major role
in making such residences attractive to the high
rollers who buy them. For Sternlicht, that translated into the hiring of high-profile designers to
create the interiors of the two branded residence
projects he's currently working on.
The first, the residential portion of Starwood
Capital's first-ever Baccarat Hotel, is one of the
most hotly anticipated openings in New York.
That property, which Sternlicht's company developed with Tribeca Associates, bears the name of
the French glassmaker that Starwood Capital
acquired in 2005.
Housed in the upper floors of a new, 50-story
tower at 5th Avenue and 53rd Street that was
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Boutique Design - October 2014

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