4 months ago
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In a filing with the Jamaica Stock Exchange, entertainment company Pulse Investments Limited said it has reassessed the usage of a key asset, the Villa Ronai property, and while residential development is still on the cards, the focus for the short to medium term is a phased transformation of the property into a five-star resort.
Senior executive at Pulse, Dimitris Kosvogiannis, who is leading the project, dismissed talk of the abandonment of the project that began under late Pulse founder Kingsley Cooper. There is no thought of $3.8 billion property that was set to host more than 160-unit villa-style development, he said.
“That land is slated to be developed into a housing development and that is still very much part of the overall strategy. Like every sensible approved business, we prioritise, and we put forward what makes business sense,” Kosvogiannis told the Financial Gleaner.
He adds that ‘business sense’ doesn’t only involve finance but also strategic positioning and brand leverage.
“The board, with my support and my counsel, (made a decision) to move into the hospitality sector today – not figuratively today, but now – and allow for the brand to enter that space with the housing as a secondary interest,” said Kosvogiannis, who joined Pulse in April.
Pulse says the shift is designed to accelerate revenue generation and enhance asset value by leveraging existing infrastructure for luxury hospitality. In its market filing, aimed at clarifying the company’s plans, Pulse said Villa Ronai will be positioned as a premier luxury wellness destination, targeting high net worth travellers, the Jamaican diaspora, and corporate clients.
Kosvogiannis, a seasoned hotelier with a quarter-century of experience in hospitality, said the project is slated to begin in another two to three months. By his estimate, which he indicated is based on preliminary numbers, the company is looking at about $300 million in total development costs.
The financing is still not finalised but discussions are advanced, Kosvogiannis said.
Architect Rivi Gardner has already provided renderings of the new complex, which will be disclosed shortly, he added.
Features of the repositioning include a repurposing of “a lot of the space in the villas and the current apartments”. At present, the Villa Ronai property encompasses about 65 rooms. Kosvogiannis said the plans call for about 40 rooms with an emphasis on luxury, comfort and a paradisic-type of environment.
“Some of the rooms that are very small are going to become one bigger room. We are not looking to maximize square footage as a vision,” said the Pulse executive.
“We’re looking to maximise guest experience … we’re looking to maximise comfort,” he said.
A small house on the northern side of the property will be demolished and replaced with a new structure to house a spa.
“I can tell this: there will not be a spa like this in the whole of Jamaica,” Kosvogiannis declared.
“We do expect to have persons that are not staying in the villa to come for the day to have lunch, to have a detox, to participate in the detox menu, to go to the spa,” he added.
Regarding the attainment of five-star status, which requires consistent delivery of a specific quality of service, Kosvogiannis said that from his experience, only a select few hotels in Jamaica qualify in very technical areas, such as having bed linen with a 400 thread count or a terry towel of 600 GSM or grams per square metre.
Citing other characteristics of a five-star operation, Kosvogiannis said the phone shouldn’t ring more than three times; a guest cannot be put on hold for more than 30 seconds; and it takes five minutes or less to check out a guest.
“Unless you do those things and a number of other processes, you’re not five-star,” he said.
Attaining five-star status won’t be easy, but the hotelier insisted it was possible for Pulse to get it done.
“As God liveth, it’s going to be done with Jamaican people; it’s not going to be done with expats,” the naturalized Greek Jamaican asserted.
“That is part of the growth … to bring up Jamaica people so they can become five-star operators,” he said.
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