Baccarat Hotel & Residences Temenos, Anguilla Announced

January 7, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

UPDATE 2/21/08 – I just checked Flag Luxury Properties website (www.flagluxury.com) and discovered that Baccarat will be the hotel brand within the Temenos Anguilla resort. Baccarat will be branded on a 114 hotel, and 50 private residences. Another 18 estate homes, 10 temenos villas and 38 spa villas will not be under the Baccarat brand, yet still within the Temenos Anguilla resort.  Hopefully that clears up some confusion.

Today Starwood Capital Group officially announced the second Baccarat Hotel & Residences project. Called Baccarat Hotel & Residences, Temenos, Anguilla. This project is being built in conjunction with Flag Luxury Properties and seems to be a re-flagging of Flag’s existing St. Regis Resort, Temenos Anguilla. (Talk about poaching from your former employer!) Its unclear in the press release exactly what the status is of the project – it goes everywhere from saying, Starwood Capital will finish developing the property, to inferring that all Starwood Capital will do is operate the project as a Baccarat Hotel & Residences (while obviously integrating the Baccarat theme throughout the resort.) According to the press release it will contain 50 oceanfront residences, 18 estate homes, 38 spa villas, 10 villas, and a 114 key ultra luxury hotel. The project will also include a Greg Norman designed golf course – apparently the first golf course in Anguilla.

Here’s what made me so excited about this press release – the press release gave out a lot more information than simply telling about the Baccarat project – it also talked about Flag Luxury Properties, and how it owns a major 18.5 acres in the center of the Las Vegas strip, directly across from the MGM City Center project. Currently this parcel has some small buildings on it – but its ripe for redevelopment. Flag Luxury Properties states that it is going to be a “phased master development” which will be built in true Flag Luxury style.

Map image

Flag Luxury Property’s Vegas Strip property is just south of Aladdin Resort & Casino (now called Planet Hollywood Casino) and just east of the MGM City Center project which is being built in the area north of the Monte Carlo

Here’s another thing that caught my eye – Flag Luxury Properties is also a majority stockholder in Riveria Holdings – the company which owns the Riveria Casino Hotel just north of their Center Las Vegas Strip property. The interesting thing that ties all of this together is Riveria Holdings is partially owned by Barry Sternlicht – the CEO/Chairman of Starwood Capital Group – who is working with Flag Luxury Properties with their Baccarat Anguilla property!

I’ve been saying for a few months now that it seems as though Starwood Capital will be getting into the Casino business in a big way – I just found out this weekend that they were one of the original investors of the Mohegan Sun Casino, and as I’ve stated in the past, Starwood is an investor in the Twin River’s Casino in Rhode Island. I think it’s a good possibility that Flag Luxury Properties will once again join up with Starwood Capital and build a Baccarat Hotel, Resort and Casino in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip. How fitting would that be to play Baccarat at a Baccarat Hotel Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. It’s still unclear what will happen with the Riveria – but since it is an older casino I think it’s days are numbered until it receives the same fate as most of Las Vegas’s aging resorts – implosion leading to a major resort being built.

Well in this post I’ve deviated a lot from what the title stated – but unfortunately there really is not that much information about the Anguilla project, and a lot of it has not been detailed, such as opening date, etc. Keep an eye on their website though – I’m sure there will be more content added in a short amount of time – currently there are just generic pictures and very little text. We still have not heard anything about Baccarat Water Cay, so that should be the next notable event coming from Baccarat. And details on Le Crillon should also be forthcoming soon!

andrew@alconic-inc.com

View Comments »

  1. Comment by SAM A. on January 23 2008:

    I have to commend Mr. Calvo on this intriguing blog. As someone living and working on Anguilla, we are following the progress of the now-Baccarat Hotel & Residences very closely. I work at the Sheriva Villa Hotel and have a birdseye view of this project. We have a good working relationship with the principals involved. Anguilla is and will remain one of the most coveted destinations for unparalleled luxury and privacy. Expect nothing less.

  2. Comment by Andrew Calvo on January 23 2008:

    Sam – Thanks for your compliments! I’m looking forward to seeing what the end result will be.
    -Andrew

  3. Comment by Paul on November 25 2008:

    Temenos is having financial trouble. That’s a common problem and many companies and individuals are faced with the same thing during these turbulent times. The problem is that the management has probably not been truthful with the owners and I’d like to find out who has bought so we can organize a response. Please post so I can contact you.

  4. Comment by MikeONYC on December 5 2008:

    I almost bought down there, and wrote about the project for a major magazine. I am starting to work on a piece updating the progress of a variety of luxury resort projects given the gloabl financial situation. If anyone has hard info, details or photos of what is (or is not) happening at Temenos, it would be great to have them. I am wondering what the status of projects on St. Kitts and other islands is given the cutbacks among construction lenders and the evident dropoff in prices and sales in luxury real estate, art, etc…

  5. Comment by mark epstein on December 21 2008:

    I purchased two waterfront villas several years ago. Extremely frustrated with the failure of Flag to deliver on it’s promise.
    Bottom line, the project has been brought to a halt, and Flag is suppposedly in the process of buying back the debt. I was promised that if this could be accomplished, ie, thru foreclosure, that all the current owners will be kept whole.
    As owners all we can do is take a back seat and pray that Flag is succesful in buying back the debt.

  6. Comment by MikeONYC on January 2 2009:

    I was just at the site. Structures of the villas are pretty complete, but interiors are completely raw. Glass is in, so the weather ingress is limited. The “outdoor shower” areas in the baths upstairs are all filled with standing water, and the weather comes into the space there, so everything feels damp. Some really questionable-looking plumbing rough is in some of the villas. The hotel structure looks about 30% complete. The site is a total mess. Trash and piles of stuff everywhere. The scale of the place is really overwhelming with all the buildings up. The golf course looks like it’s being cut, though some of the grass looks frazzled -too much salt/too little expensive fertilizer?

    Flag is buying back the debt? I thought CSFB provided a $180mm+/- construction loan… so Flag wants to buy it at a discount, then get financing to finish elsewhere? Interesting idea. But their cost over-runs by now must have eaten up all the discount they could hope to get and more. Couldn’t CSFB just foreclose and cut a deal with Flag to finish, then sell the whole project to someone new, leaving the equity out in the cold? Seems unlikely they would have approved construction draws to 100% with so much work to be done.

    How much of the purchase price do buyers have up, and where is it? Spent? In escrow??

  7. Comment by Lauren on January 14 2009:

    Has anyone heard anything more about this project? Either from other websites/blogs or Flag directly? I believe it would help if other buyers shared what little knowledge is available.

  8. Comment by Chris on February 17 2009:

    Good day to MikeONYC, I do not have any information on Temenos or Anguilla but I do work at Christophe Harbour in St. Kitts and would be happy to provide any updated information on our project if you are interested. Please email me at chris_stutts@christopheharbour.com or call 869.762.0030 for more information. Thanks, Chris

  9. Comment by Bob on February 24 2009:

    Great article Andrew and I believe you have only hit the tip of the iceberg. The outcome of this situation could be devastating to the island of Anguilla. This is why when a developer goes in and tries to control the entire product the risk is great because if their business model fails it generally leaves no wounded. St. Barts on the other hand has a platform where the individual investor has taken the risk and in the event fails does not take down the entire island. St. Regis in its effort to create a homogeneous product that has a consistent quality level has created a huge challenge for itself.

    It would be interesting to fully understand their options as well as their short and long term plans to try and keep this project alive.

  10. Comment by Sean on April 7 2009:

    I am looking for others who have purchased in Temenos Anguilla. My employer has purchased a property there and has asked me to reach out to his future neighbors. We are looking to set up a communication chain via email so that we can discuss the project and keep one another posted as to its progress. Please email me at ricbroker25@aol.com if you would like to be included.

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