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The Chinese are opening London’s priciest hotel – with a US twist

Rosewood is transforming the former US embassy in Mayfair into London’s top new hotel, the Chancery Rosewood. What would Donald Trump say?
Radha Arora, President of Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, stands outside the new Rosewood Hotel in London.
Radha Arora, president of Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, outside the Chancery Rosewood, Grosvenor Square, London. Previously it was the US embassy
JOSHUA BRATT FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

Donald Trump presents himself as the great dealmaker, a man who gets the best properties at the best locations for the best price, especially when it comes to opening hotels like his Washington hotel. Radha Arora is about to put one over on him — in his own embassy.

“This is the best hotel, with the best address, in the No 1 city on the planet,” the president of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts said last week as he walked into the former US embassy on Grosvenor Square in London’s Mayfair — soon to be the Chancery Rosewood hotel.

The hotel, which will open in August, is the most expensive to be built in London: the £1 billion budget works out at £7 million for each of the 144 suites, which come with butler service. The “cheapest” suite is £1,500 a night, and the two penthouse suites — named after British monarchs so loved by Trump, Elizabeth and Charles — will go for about £60,000 a night. Trump can only dream of such regal connections and rates.

Anti-Vietnam War demonstration in London.
Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations famously took place outside the building in Grosvenor Square in 1968
TIMES NEWSPAPERS

The US hoisted the For Sale sign over the mid-century modern building — designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen and topped by a gilded eagle sculpture — in 2008. Former president George W Bush said its location, surrounded by narrow public roads, meant it was vulnerable to terrorist attack.

The decision to move to a fortified cube in Nine Elms was “lousy”, Trump declared during his first presidency. “We had the best site in all of London. Then some genius said: ‘We’re gonna sell the site.’ They go out and they buy a horrible location.” He cancelled a visit to open the embassy. “They wanted me to cut the ribbon and I said, ‘I don’t wanna do it’.”

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Arora, 66, who used to manage the Ritz and Four Seasons hotels in London and also did a stint at the Savoy, will do more than cut a ribbon. He is planning a splashy American-accented party for the grand opening in October, perhaps including a big-name US performer. “We know several.”

Aerial view of the U.S. Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London.
The US put the building designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen up for sale in 2008
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What does it feel like to be upstaging the world’s greatest showman, I ask. “I live in his country, so I have to be careful what I say!” Arora’s home is in Beverly Hills, where he used to manage the Regent Beverly Wilshire of Pretty Woman fame. Is Trump invited to the opening party and to the hotel? He has “an open invitation”, Arora said. “I’m sure he will come here and will be pleasantly surprised.”

That might be wishful thinking. Political and trade relations between Washington and Beijing are strained following Trump’s decision to declare a tariff war on China. The scions of the wealthy Cheng family which owns the Rosewood Group — Sonia and Adrian — are both graduates of Harvard University, which is currently in Trump’s crosshairs.

There’s not much Arora can do about Harvard but, ever the diplomatic hotelier, he plays down Rosewood’s Chinese connections — “the holding company is in Hong Kong” — and plays up the Chancery Rosewood’s Qatari connections: “This building is owned by the Qataris”. Qatari Diar, the state-backed property developer, bought the former embassy in 2009 for an estimated £500 million. The Emir of Qatar recently curried favour with Trump by gifting him a $500 million Qatari government Boeing 747 to replace the ageing Air Force One jumbo jet.

Have the Qataris offered Rosewood a private plane, too? “Not yet. We’ll borrow it from Mr Trump,” Arora laughed.

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Joking apart, does he fear that some Americans might be reluctant to stay in a Chinese-run hotel at a time of tension between the world’s two superpowers? “Not at all. Our biggest source of business is from the US, be it at the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris or in Mexico, Munich, Vienna,” he said, referencing top Rosewood properties.

Arora’s answers are as slick as his wardrobe. He’s clad top-to-toe in Loro Piana and Brunello Cucinelli, and a Patek Philippe Aquanaut watch pokes out from the baby blue cuff of his hand-made Italian shirt. But there are concerns. The number of Europeans travelling to the US and checking into Rosewood’s seven properties there is down, as many tourists boycott America in protest at Trump’s trade wars and his animosity towards the EU. Stricter border controls are another deterrent.

“People going from here in Europe to the US, yes, there is a challenge at the moment. People are really averse,” Arora conceded. But buoyant domestic US demand has helped to fill the gap.

It’s the same story in Hong Kong where Rosewood has its flagship Chinese property. The fall in international demand post Covid and after a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters has been partially made up by growing demand among Chinese. “Business did taper. But we’re holding our own,” he said.

Radha Arora, President of Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, standing on a rooftop terrace next to a large gold sculpture.
Radha Arora at the rooftop Eagle Bar, named after the sculpture, which is made of metal salvaged from a decommissioned B52 bomber
JOSHUA BRATT FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

Rosewood has an aggressive expansion plan for a super high end brand that is taking the fight to the small but perfectly formed Raffles, Peninsula, Belmond and Aman hotel groups. It has 39 hotels and will open another 20 over the next few years.

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The Grosvenor Square property will be next. Is Arora not worried that he is expanding too fast at a time of global uncertainty? “We don’t see it as an aggressive development. We see it as extending a footprint in the areas where our clients want to go.”

From August, London will have two Rosewoods: the other is in Holborn. Arora insists there is “room for both”.

The economic downturn in China, notably the slump in the once red hot property market, has hit the Cheng family. New World Development, the indebted publicly quoted real estate developer controlled by the family, is currently engaged in a HK$87.5 billion ($11.2 billion) loan refinancing with more than 50 banks. Its successful completion would give the firm time to bolster its liquidity.

New World Development did not respond to a request for comment but Arora points out that the Rosewood Hotel group is 100 per cent privately owned by the Cheng family and is, therefore, unaffected by New World Development’s woes. “It’s separate,” he said.

Perhaps the greatest challenge Arora faces is neither political nor financial but culinary. He has snagged some big-name chefs to open fancy restaurants in the Chancery Rosewood: Carbone, New York’s hottest Italian, will soon open on the ground floor. But given the building’s American history, he knows he has to create the “absolutely best hamburger and fries in London. This is a mandate”.

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Looking out from the rooftop’s Eagle Bar over the avian sculpture, which is made of metal salvaged from a decommissioned B52 bomber, he said: “Shame on us if we don’t get it right!”

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