Macau’s Crown Jewel
The Mandarin Oriental gets ready to dip further into Macau’s growing serviced apartment market
| Text : Elizabeth Kerr |
"Cheap" can mean a lot of things, and Macau, for lack of a better word has often been perceived as cheap — be it inexpensive or vaguely tacky. If there’s one thing Macau is not any more it’s cheap. That all started to change when Stanley Ho’s iron grip on the city relaxed and the Sands opened its doors in 2004. The Sands may not be a paragon of class, but it did set an international standard that Macau is quickly getting on board with.
With construction on the Cotai strip just gearing up again after the disastrous 2008 financial crisis crippled development, the core of Macau’s five-star hotel addresses is still on the peninsula: Wynn Macau and Wynn Encore, MGM Grand, and the stalwart Lisboa are located there. In June, Shun Tak Holdings and Hongkong Land announced their jointly developed serviced apartments at One Central: The Residences & Apartments at Mandarin Oriental, Macau. It’s a mouthful, and it should be.
Branded residences aren’t new to Hong Kong or Asia: the Four Seasons, the W, the Repulse Bay and St. Regis are among the brands with properties available for sale or lease in Asia-Pacific. But the RAMOM are the first that will soon be for sale in Hong Kong or Macau, and the developers are expecting it to be the crowning final piece of the puzzle in Macau’s evolving lifestyle district. “The market response to every past launch of One Central Residences has been overwhelming. We believe the exclusive Residences & Apartments at Mandarin Oriental, Macau will follow this success and generate even stronger demand given their quality and investment value,” said Deputy Managing Director of Shun Tak Holdings Daisy Ho.
According to an autumn news release from Jones Lang LaSalle Macau’s residential market was on the upswing in the first half of 2010 across the board. The city recorded 50 percent of 2009’s total sales transactions in the first five months of the year, and capital values and rents for luxury properties grew by 3.2 and 1.5 percent respectively. Jeff Wong, Head of Residential for JLL in Macau remarked, “Macau’s real interest rates will likely remain in the negative regime for the rest of the year, providing a favourable environment for property investment … while the limited new supply in 2011 and 2012 will lend support to residential prices. The outlook for Macau’s residential market is expected to be positive.” Hotel and resort development are continuing, and with that will come an influx of management staff all needing homes, which will in turn buoy the serviced apartment market similar to the way it does in Hong Kong.
Annexed to One Central, Macau’s newest luxury shopping destination, where the 213- room hotel is located, the Residences will occupy the fifteen floors above the Mandarin. At press time, indicative prices were sitting at HK$10,000 per square foot, though an on-sale date for the transferable strata title properties hasn’t been set yet. The 92 residences will range from 700 to 5,000 square feet in two-, three- and four-bedroom simplex, duplex and triplex configurations. There will be an additional 36 one-bedroom and studio suites, and all will be guaranteed views of Nam Van Lake and Taipa Island. The architecture comes courtesy of global firm Kohn Pedersen Fox & Associates (who designed the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art and Dulles International Airport among dozens of other structures) and the interiors are by LRF Designers (responsible for the look of the Four Seasons Shanghai and Le Meridien Amman as a start).
Shun Tak may not be as synonymous with luxury as the more global Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, but it was a pioneer in Macau’s hospitality industry. As the city’s prime mover and shaker for decades, Stanley Ho’s umbrella company introduced the concept of a five-star lifestyle to Macau when he opened the Lisboa and later coaxed Joel Robuchon into opening a dining outlet. Yes, sleepy Macau beat Hong Kong to the international French dining sensation by five years (Robuchon a Galera) and one Michelin star. Ho brought wine culture to the city and now he’s teaming with another homegrown five-star, the Mandarin, for a residence that is aiming to set the bar for five-star living.
For the time being, Shun Tak and Co., are focusing on the property as a lifestyle option and future residents will “enjoy the amenities, discreet luxury and legendary service of Mandarin Oriental, Macau,” as Shun Tak put it in a press release. “We have conceived of One Central as the ultimate vision of an urban luxury lifestyle. The Residences & Apartments at Mandarin … will successfully complete our flagship development in the heart of Macau,” said Robert Wong, Hongkong Land’s executive director. Aside from direct access to the One Central shopping centre and MGM Macau, standard services that will be provided with the monthly management fees are 24-hour security, concierge, and maintenance services, access to the hotel pool and fitness centre, and priority restaurant and salon reservations among a laundry list of other perks. Residents will be free to take advantage of the hotel’s event planning services, partake in degustation events, hire personal chefs, sommeliers and bartenders or order room service.
A major factor for Shun Tak in converting the peninsula into the aforementioned lifestyle hub is the spa facilities, something the Mandarin is renowned for. Along with use of the private club at One Central Residences (which Shun Tak manages), the Spa at Mandarin Oriental (also for hotel guests and residents only) counts as one of the RAMOM’s facilities. It’s likely to play an enormous part in defining the living standard all parties involved are attempting to provide. As MOHG operations director Andrew Hirst finishes, “We look forward to bringing Mandarin Oriental’s legendary hospitality and standards of service to [RAMOM] exclusive owners. Together with our partners, we aim to create the most sophisticated lifestyle offering in the heart of Macau.”
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