Versace, the Italian fashion house, is building a hotel, the Palazzo Versace, in Dubai. To ease the discomfort of walking on hot sand, they are installing a network of pipes under the beach through which coolant will be pumped, absorbing the heat from the sand — the world’s first refrigerated beach! This will go hand in hand with the swimming pool, which will also be refrigerated. There are also proposals to install giant blowers to send a gentle breeze over the beach. Have we finally crossed the threshold between reality and virtual reality? Can a hotel in this era of global warming be that insensitive to environmental concerns? Isn’t there a worldwide recession? Didn’t the Dubai bubble burst? Oh, that’s right. They were bailed out by Khalif. Carry on, Versace. Right into bankruptcy.
Dubai, Hotels
Versace Dubai
And we thought the Age of Opulence was in its death throes. Designer Giorgio Armani opened its first hotel today,a 160-room operation in Dubai’s Burg Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Built in conjunction with Emaar Properties, it is modeled after the Emaar’s Address Hotel nearby, yet designed by Armani: corridors resemble fashion show catwalks, and the nightclub claims to have the world’s biggest LCD screen. Rooms here can cost as much as $11,000.00 a night, but rates begin at a mere $1089.00 per night. Is there really a market out there to support this? Or is it a money mirage? After all, this tower has struggled to fill its space, and Dubai was the world’s most overheated bubble last year, as property prices dropped by more than 50 percent. This tower was named in January in honor of United Arab Emirates President Khalifa Bin Zayed, who bailed Dubai out of its deep financial crisis. Armani is already at work planning a second hotel in Milan.
Dubai, Hotels
Here’s proof that Dubai is still the biggest bubble in the world, just waiting to burst. As the price for a barrel of oil drops to $48, as the world hovers on the brink of a global economic meltdown, as the Consumer Price Index in the United States is actually falling, mega-resort Atlantis celebrates its official opening on Dubai’s man-made Palm Jumeirah Island with a $35-million extravaganza that is being billed as the biggest party in the world. (The fireworks alone cost $6.5-million). Ironically, the original Atlantis in the Bahamas, which sired this monstrosity, just laid off 800 workers this week, a result of slumping occupancy.
CK
Dubai