Press

Global investors put their faith in Dubai's economy, making the emirate the first and most-preferred choice for future investments in the Middle East, according to an international survey released yesterday. And 81 per cent of those surveyed who have investments in Dubai plan to maintain or increase their investments in the next three years.

The eagerly awaited grand unveiling of Armani Hotels’ first venture is set to take place this week: a 39-floor, five-star hotel housed in the Burj Khalifa. With 160 guest rooms and suites and 144 residential apartments, it’s no small venture. The launch itself is shrouded in secrecy, but, as with any opening in this city, the press, both here and internationally, will be quick to pass judgment as soon as they get a peek inside.

The cheapest room, a 45-square-metre Armani Studio, costs $1,525 a night. The priciest, a 235-square-metre Armani Signature room, will cost you $4,900 a night, about $550 more than the most expensive suite at Dubai’s sail-shaped Burj Al Arab, the world’s first seven-star hotel.

It may well be the tallest building on the planet, but the Burj Khalifa can no longer boast the fastest lifts in the world. That record has now been clinched by the new 1 080 metre/minute lift in the 212.75-metre-high G1 Tower being built by Hitachi in Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. This will also be the tallest lift research facility in the world.

Dubai-based Emaar Hospitality Group is scouting for partners to make its India foray. The company plans to bring in its five star hotel brand ‘The Address’ in the Indian market. “We are at discussion stage with some companies,” Marc Francois-Dardenne, Chief Executive Officer, Emaar Hospitality told Business Standard.

The 75-year-old designer opened his first hotel at the world's tallest tower in Dubai last month and plans a new hotel in Milan in 2011, as he keeps investors guessing on the future of his company.

If the project goes ahead, it would top the Taipei 101 Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Centre and Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers – the world's three tallest buildings after the 828m Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

More recently, passengers were left stranded between floors after their lift car broke down inside the Burj Khalifa. And, in March this year, British former F1 driver Stirling Moss broke his ankles after falling down an elevator shaft in London.

Not content with supermodels, catwalks and a roll call of rich and famous clients, these fashion designers are increasingly spreading their creative wings to include interior design projects for hotels – see Hotel Maison Moschino in Milan, the Missoni Hotel in Edinburgh or the Hotel Armani in Dubai - or even launching their own interiors collections.

The world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa (formerly known as Burj Dubai), officially opened Jan. 4 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. Architect Adrian Smith, who designed Burj Khalifa while at the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, attended the opening ceremonies. Burj Khalifa's official height was announced at 828 meters, or 2,716.5 feet. "It was the culmination of many years of work and one of the most thrilling moments of my career," said Smith, who left SOM in 2006 to start his own firm, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture.