Starwood Hotels & Resorts will open more than 70 new hotels around the world during 2005 and 2006. The upscale hotel chain will also add several new spas to its collection of 33 spas around the globe.New hotels scheduled to open in 2005 and 2006 include:
- St. Regis Hotel & Residences in San Francisco and Fort Lauderdale, FL (2nd quarter 2005)
- St. Regis/The Luxury Collection, including L'Amphitrite Palace, Skirhat, Morocco (2nd quarter 2005), Convento do Espinheiro, Evora, Portugal (2nd quarter 2005), Marques de Riscal, Elciego Alava, Spain (1st quarter 2006), Ballantyne Resort, Charlotte, NC (1st quarter 2005), U.S. Grant, San Diego, CA (3rd quarter 2005)
- W Hotels including the W Maldives Fesdhu Resort, Fesdhu, Maldives (1st quarter 2006), the W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences, Dallas, TX (2nd quarter 2005), the W Scottsdale Hotel and Residences, Scottsdale, AZ, and W Hotels in Hoboken, NJ, and on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles (3rd quarter 2006).
Hotel Business reports that Starwood is working with several financial partners on about $250 million of real estate purchases in Las Vegas, Nevada. Included in the deal would be the opening of an upscale W hotel with a casino several blocks from Las Vegas strip, and the purchase of vacant land near the Strip where Starwood would build a luxury St. Regis property.
Spa openings will follow a similarly aggressive development path. Mia Kyricos, Manager Spa Development & Operations for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, offers SpaTrade an exclusive sampling of spas in the pipeline:
- Ballantyne Resort (Luxury Collection), Charlotte, NC, March 2005
- Sheraton La Caleta Resort & Spa, March 2005 (Tenerife, Spain)
- St. Regis Hotel & Residences, San Francisco, July 2005
- St. Regis Resort & Residences, Ft. Lauderdale, September 2005
- Westin Roko Ki Beach & Golf Resort, Macao, Dominican Republic, April 2006
- Singer Island, Palm Beach, Luxury Collection, December 2006
"You can expect spa to play a big role in defining our hotels and resort properties in the future both in the US and abroad," says Kyricos. "We're in the business of full-service, upscale hotel operations, and these days, one does not exist without the other."