FAIRMONT Hotels & Resorts (FHR) has announced three additional properties in the Middle East.
FHR has entered into agreements to manage The Fairmont Cairo, Nile City, The Fairmont Palm Hotel & Resort in Dubai and The Fairmont Abu Dhabi Resort & Villas, all scheduled to open in 2006.
In a strategic alliance with Kuwait-based international Financial Advisors (IFA), the group will open a 300-room luxury resort with 460 vacation ownership residences located on the Dubai’s Palm, Jumeirah. FHR and KHI will each invest approximately $15 million for a 15 percent equity interest each in the project. The Fairmont Palm hotel and resort is scheduled to open in late 2006.
The entire complex, including a retail area and five beach clubs, will be located on the Southwest side of the trunk portion in close proximity to the Palm island’s core features. The Cairo property is a joint venture with Nile City Investments to manage a 552-room luxury hotel currently being developed on the Nile River in central Cairo. FHR and Kingdom Hotel Investment Group (KHI) will each invest about $10m for an equity interest of approximately 15 percent each in the property, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 2006.
FHR, IFA and KHI are also exploring other resort projects in the Middle East, East Africa and South Africa.
The Fairmont Abu Dhabi Resort & Villas will be the group’s first Abu Dhabi property, the result of an agreement with the National Investment Corporation of Abu Dhabi. It will be a 265-room luxury property modelled on an Arabian palace and will open late 2006.