The Athens Group symptoms settlement with 4 Seasons to function its new vacation resort in Naples

The secret is out.

Naples could soon boast a five-star Four Seasons vacation resort.

Even though Four Seasons Accommodations & Resorts hasn’t publicly declared its interest nevertheless, The Athens Team has confirmed it has a letter of intent for the planet-renowned manufacturer to function the 5-star resort that will switch the landmark Naples Seaside Hotel.

“Four Seasons’ vacation spot resort lodges and residences are unsurpassed, and we consider this special spot in Naples warrants nothing at all considerably less,” explained Kim Richards, CEO of The Athens Team, in a assertion.

“Though the running settlement is still in growth, Four Seasons shares Athens’ vision for developing fantastic experiences for our resort company and inhabitants, as effectively as our Naples neighbors,” he said.

The revelation arrives as The Athens Group’s order of the current hotel draws in the vicinity of. The closing on the complete 125-acre residence, like the golfing system and tennis heart, is established for the conclusion of May possibly.

The developer options to exchange the latest resort with a smaller, a lot more upscale vacation resort, and to make what it has explained as “best-in-class” residential condos on both of those sides of Gulf Shore Boulevard, with elevated features that will incorporate golfing and tennis.

Aerial of the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club.

In an e-mail, Jordanna Gualtieri, an affiliate vice president for KWT World wide, the public relations company for Four Seasons, would only affirm that the brand name “evaluates a variety of growth markets about the earth on a standard foundation” and it is “usually exploring chances in new locations.”

According to its website, in 2020 Four Seasons signed agreements for 9 new resort, vacation resort and residential assignments, inspite of the worries posed by the coronavirus pandemic, “tying a file for the most new bargains in the company’s 60-year heritage.”

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1 of the more recent initiatives Four Seasons has announced is in Italy’s southern region of Puglia, in which the organization plans to develop an all-new resort with sights from Italy’s Adriatic coast.

Four Seasons has just lately expanded its existence in Tokyo and San Francisco, as effectively as building what it describes as a “stunning return” to Thailand’s money in Bangkok.

“With each individual new house, our objective is to create the greatest luxury working experience in that market by presenting a products of remarkable top quality merged with unparalleled support. Just about every new hotel, resort and residence is a distinctive reflection of its local marketplace, though also symbolizing the foreseeable future of what 4 Seasons will deliver for many years to come,” said Christian Clerc, the brand’s president of global operations, in an update about the company’s advancement strategies final thirty day period.

Though 4 Seasons is envisioned to assistance the residences at the new Naples Beach front Club advancement, The Athens Group has not but verified whether or not they will carry the similar brand as the resort.

In accordance to its site, Four Seasons entered into branded residential offerings more than 35 decades ago — and “nearly 90% of forthcoming openings and pipeline developments include things like a household part.”

Four Seasons is a single of only a few hospitality companies that also functions as a property supervisor for its residential entrepreneurs.

The brand’s interest in Naples will come as welcome news to community supporters of the redevelopment undertaking, to start with declared back again in 2018.

“They can only enhance the dynamic of the hospitality field, as effectively as the community. I see it only as a constructive. I see unquestionably zero adverse to that by any means,” stated Joe McCabe, vice president of progress at Gulf Coastline Business Corp. in Naples.

He mentioned a 4 Seasons resort would go hand-in-hand with latest and planned improvements to the area’s two Ritz-Carlton’s, designed to acquire both of those houses up a notch, and significant-close hoteliers he’s talked to in town are not nervous about the new level of competition.

He likened the condition to a CVS locating around a Walgreens. Somewhat than cannibalizing each other’s business, the significant-end resorts can feed off just about every other, making a lot more financial benefits for the local economic climate, as competing pharmacies do, McCabe claimed.

“It’s all accountable enhancement, tailored to a increased-close experience. That is my feeling,” he said.

Metropolis leaders achieved for this story see the planned involvement of Four Seasons as good news too.

Terry Hutchison, the city’s vice mayor, explained it would be “a really very good signal for the Naples local community.”

“The 4 Seasons manufacturer is a extremely effectively-recognised brand name globally, a revered brand, and a little something I am positive Naples would be proud to have in the local community,” he said. “When you look at how Four Seasons has maintained their manufacturer and the amenities — and the execution of their operations — it’s very little but superior.”

He counseled the developer’s efforts to continue on doing the job with the local community to handle ongoing issues about some of the project’s finer aspects that have however to be labored out, together with proposed adjustments to the golfing system and environmentally friendly room The Athens Group has committed to preserve.

“I imagine that these fellas are significant about placing together a 5-star resort, and a undertaking that will be a star for the city of Naples,” Hutchison stated. “And almost certainly the last remaining difficulty now, the most important situation, is the golf study course, and what the end result will be, for that piece of property.”

Like Hutchison, fellow Councilman Gary Rate claimed Naples would be lucky to attract yet another significant-end model these kinds of as Four Seasons.

“If Four Seasons is the model, then I feel that is a amazing concept to this local community that I consider we can be very pleased of,” he claimed. “Possessing the means to attract these kinds of a wonderful brand name, a high-quality manufacturer.”

While a 4 Seasons could not have as profound of an impact on tourism and genuine estate as the opening of the initial Ritz-Carlton in the Naples space a long time ago, Price reported a 4 Seasons has the likely to attract new focus and new desire from the affluent around the entire world.

“We’re in a distinct location than we were when the Ritz arrived right here,” he stated.

Though he welcomes the notion of owning a 4 Seasons in Naples, Rate reported 1 of his biggest worries is how to “maintain the charm of what the house has meant to the community over the a long time,” and to hold it “inclusive” so inhabitants can however get pleasure from its golf program and other amenities at a affordable cost.