CHI Hotels & Resorts, the Malta-based company that operates the Corinthia luxury brand, is about to open its first hotel in a Western gateway city.
CEO Tony Potter said the company's new Corinthia Hotel London, set to open next year, would compete with the likes of the Savoy and Four Seasons.
"It’s a big one for us," Potter said. "It will very much assist us in putting the Corinthia brand on the global map."
Corinthia has been best known for its early entry in developing markets in Central and Eastern Europe and Africa.
But a key goal the past few years has also been to expand to gateway markets such as London. And Potter said he hoped it was just the first of several new projects in key Western markets.
"We’ve got to do New York and Paris," he said, noting the company is aggressively looking for opportunities. "We’ve got our eyes on a few things in New York."
The 296-room London hotel is set to open in 2010 in Whitehall, alongside the Thames.
"We really are positioning this as very top-end," Potter said. "I think generally we will have the best bed stock in London. The average room size is 44 square meters [about 474 square feet].
"It’s a great location. Trafalgar Square is 200 yards to the left and River Thames is 75 yards to the right."
Potter said CHI also has recently reopened the renovated Corinthia Hotel St. Petersburg in Russia, which now offers the largest conference facilities in the city.
It also has completed the refurbishment works at the Corinthia Palace Hotel & Spa in Malta, added a state-of-the-art Spa at the Corinthia Hotel Lisbon and launched the first stage of the Corinthia Beach Resort in Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt, with the opening of the Tiran Hotel.
This will shortly be followed by the opening of the adjoining Tiran Residence and the Corinthia Resort Hotel to complete the Sharm al-Sheikh resort.
The development of the Corinthia Lake Resort and Spa in Romania and the Corinthia Budapest Gate and Residences in Hungary, scheduled to open in 2011 and 2012, respectively, are both on schedule, while plans for the construction of a second hotel in Libya, the Corinthia Hotel Benghazi, are at an advanced stage.