Luxurious Shangri-La Hotel set to open August 7
http://www.thestar.com/business/art...shangri-la-hotel-set-to-open-august-7#article
Toronto’s newest luxury property, the Shangri-La Hotel, is set to open August 7 next year. At 1.30 p.m.
That precision just hints at the attention to detail by developer Ian Gillespie who’s determined the Shangri-La will have a leg up on the downtown’s burgeoning well-heeled pack from the very minute it opens.
Timing is everything, says Gillespie, but not because the Shangri-La is about to enter a suddenly crowded five-star field, given the recent opening of the Ritz-Carlton, to be followed by Trump Tower in January and the new Four Seasons next summer.
Rather, Gillespie’s development partner, Ben Yeung, is a devout Buddhist who has tied the opening of every one of the Vancouver-based duo’s $5 billion in commercial and residential projects to important dates on the Buddhist calendar.
“I know this is going to sound strange, but it’s brought us a great amount of good fortune,†says Gillespie.
Every little bit is definitely going to help as Toronto heads for what some have called a five-star faceoff, with 1,000 new hotel rooms likely to start at $400-a-night and up.
Gillespie shrugs that off: “We build Porsches. Others manufacture cars.â€
Trump general manager Mickael Damelincourt welcomes the competition. “I think it will be good for all of us and gives the luxury traveller some choice.â€
The 66-storey Living Shangri-La Toronto project at University Ave. and Adelaide St., built by Gillespie’s Westbank Development Corp. and Yeung’s Peterson Group, is largely a construction zone with four floors yet to be poured.
But Gillespie whisked media and realtors in construction elevators to the 6th floor’s two model hotel rooms Wednesday, both of which speak to the stringent standards attached to the Shangri-La name.
Custom finished with exotic Sapele wood and elegant detailing, these rooms aren’t meant just to show off for the crowd. They are test models for a team of Shangri-La quality-control experts.
“We have to start again if the bed is an inch too high, if they don’t like the fabrics, if the towels aren’t just right,†says Gillespie.
This is just the second foray into North America for the Asia-based Shangri-La brand. Gillespie and Yeung also built the 62-storey Vancouver hotel/condo property in 2008 which the Shangri-La manages.
Toronto’s will be bigger and even better, says Gillespie— right from the art installation by Shanghai contemporary artist Zhang Huan that will start at its front doors and soar up its façade, to the Momofuku restaurant of noted Korean-American chef David Chang.
The first 17 floors will be occupied by the 202-room hotel with what has to be the best hot tub in town. It’s encased in “the ice cube†a massive glass enclosure offering fabulous views up and down University Ave.
Eighty percent of the condos and “estate†suites above the hotel — condos start at almost $1 million and the larger estate suites run up to $9.3 million — have already been sold.
There are still three two-storey penthouses left. For more than $9 million you’ll get a 3,300 to 3,500 square foot unit and a hot tub perched on what’s believed to be the highest terraces in town.
Gillespie has already snagged one for himself. He sees Toronto as a promising new frontier and can scout out development sites from here.
