LVMH plan to open Cheval Blanc hotel, spa and Louis Vuitton café in London’s Mayfair

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LVMH plan to open Cheval Blanc hotel, spa and Louis Vuitton café in London’s Mayfair

LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), the French owner of luxury fashion houses Dior, Celine, Fendi and Louis Vuitton, has announced plans to bring its small Cheval Blanc hotel chain to London.

The group plans to redevelop two streets in London’s Mayfair area in order to add a hotel with linked restaurants and an underground spa, as well as a Louis Vuitton café.

LVMH already has a strong presence in the area, where Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior both have flagship stores. The company plans to entice guests of the hotel to shop at its nearby collection of luxury retail stores.

The hotel project, which would cost as much as £500 million, would be a joint project between LVMH and real instate investor O and H Group, which owns the sites on 8-14 Grafton Street, 163-164 New Bond Street and 22-24 Bruton Lane. Foster and Partners was appointed to finalise designs and add public realm improvements.

If planning permission for the London development is granted, work would begin at the start of 2020, with a view to opening the hotel in the third quarter of 2022.

The proposal says the existing buildings on Grafton Street and Bruton Lane are of “limited architectural interest” and would be demolished. It states that new facades will use materials that “blend sensitively with this historic building and enhance the setting and ambience of the Mayfair Conservation Area.”

LVMH, which already owns the Bulgari and Cheval Blanc hotel chains, recently acquired the Belmond Hotel Group in a $3.2 billion deal that will see it take over a portfolio of 46 hotel, rail and river cruise experiences.

The Mayfair property would be the first UK outpost of the Cheval Blanc brand, which was created in 2006 and has properties in Courchevel, the Maldives, Saint-Barthelemy and Saint Tropez. Another is due to open towards the end of the year in former department store La Samaritaine in Paris.

In expanding its offering in the travel and leisure category, LVMHs aim to future-proof its business, as millennial customers increasingly spend money on experiences over luxury goods.

“The future of luxury will not only be in luxury goods, as it’s been for many years, but also in luxury experiences, and we want to be in both segments,” Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, told Business of Fashion.

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