The Edmond de Rothschild group is investing €100 million of cash in a new Four Seasons hotel in Megeve in the French Alps as the banking dynasty reaffirms its commitment to the ski resort it began building in 1920.
"I wanted to make sure that what the previous generations of Rothschilds have built can live on in the future," Ariane de Rothschild, president of the group's executive committee, said at a press conference in Paris on Wednesday.
The 55-room site will be the Four Seasons' first mountain hotel in Europe when it opens on 15 December. With a floor area of 14,000 square meters, it aims to attract clients from Switzerland, France, the UK, US, Russia and the Middle East, said Christian Clerc, the hotel operator's president of worldwide hotel operations.
It will feature the biggest spa in the French Alps and offer clients helicopter ski safaris on Mont Blanc, balloon flights and dog and horse sledding, he said.
Like other tourist destinations in the Alps, Megeve has suffered as clients rent vacation homes directly via the internet and as competition increases, de Rothschild said.
The Rothschilds' total investment in the hotel will be closer to about €130 million when non-cash assets are included, according to Fabrice Bourgeois, managing director of Edmond de Rothschild Heritage.
As of end-2016, the Edmond de Rothschild group had €155 billion in assets under management, 2,700 employees and 27 locations worldwide.
The group’s range of non-financial activities - from wine estates in France, Spain, South Africa, New Zealand and Argentina, to luxury hotels and agricultural activities, including a farm close to Paris that makes cheese - is grouped under Edmond de Rothschild Heritage.
News by Bloomberg - edited by Hospitality Ireland
