Thought Leaders -- The Multicultural, Luxury Dimension: A Interview With Luca Franco

Luca Franco is well-known in hotel and hospitality circles as one whose reputation has been forged in the luxury, multi-cultural realm. He is fluent in five languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and, Latin and is working on Portuguese. Luca's multi-cultural hospitality experience also is as varied as his linguistic expertise, as it ranges from working with the Ferragamo Group, Bulgari Hotels, to the Four Seasons Hotels and Residences and Marriott Vacation Clubs, to name a few.

Early on, his reputation became solidified as the person who brought the Palazzo Tornabuoni in Florence,Italy, to the fractional interest market, taking the first steps to allow the historic 15th century Medici palace to become what it is today: a multi-awarded contemporary mixed use private residence club. I wrote about this club in a Luxist column, earlier this year. The Palazzo has won many awards, with most recent being from the Urban Land Institute, the Award for Excellence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It was selected from 43 entries across 17 countries, yet the Palazzo stood out ( see below) for the "meticulous level of renovation and restoration demonstrated throughout."

Luca has also had success in the company he founded, Luxury Leisure Properties International, where he and his team have created similar alliances with other hotels, including the renowned Strategic Hotels. In all, they work to create successful high end mixed use projects,with luxury fractional, condo-hotel, wholly owned residences, within existing hotels. At present, his projects range from working at the Baglioni Marrakech Hotel and Residences in Morocco, the Copthorne Hotel in Dubai, to a fractional offering at Rio Quente in Brazil, the San Gimignano Golf Country Resort in Tuscany, and the Ritz Carlton Hotel and esidences in Herzliya, israel. Recently, I interviewed him about his latest projects, and how he sees the future of the luxury mixed use hotel/residence industry

The Opening of the Veer Residences, CityCenter Las Vegas

Last week, on July 14th, the Veer Towers, an integral part of CityCenter, Las Vegas, opened for business. It is one of the most, architecturally avant garde buildings within an exceptional array of edgy, urban structures, Veer Towers is designed by Helmut Jahn and is the only full residential development at City Center. The Towers incline toward each other at 5 degree angles from the center, and are 37 feet high, home to 335 contemporary condo residences, ranging from 500 to 3300 square feet, from studios to 3 bedroom residences and penthouses. Pricing begins from the mid $300,000s to a few million, depending on size, location and interiors. Turnkey interior packages are available, where potential members can move in with only their toothbrush, if desired. At present, in honor of the Veer opening, at some of the Veer towers studios owners can receive a complimentary turnkey interior design/living package, worth up to $20,000 -- an interesting deal, and might include a toothbrush.

I have written about City Center on Luxist before in an article entitled: City Center: The New Urban Vision, but had never been to Veer Towers, as they had not been completed. Now, walking into the residential towers from other areas of CityCenter, I was reminded how much of a city within a city CityCenter really is. Everything is within close proximity. From seeing a studio with exceptional views of the a portion of the Las Vegas skyline, plus multileveled rooftops of Crystals,the 500,000 square floor retail/shopping area, to a residence on a higher floor, ( see image above), the Veer residences offer a sense of sanctuary and peace, all within a city NOT known for such things. Looking out a Veers Towers window at this city of constant. colorful movement can be a peace-inducing experience.

"Living at Veer Towers is a fascinating juxtaposition for contemporary living," said Tony Dennis, Executive Vice President of City Center, Residential Division. " It juxtaposes and ultimately balances the evolving urban mosaic of CityCenter with a deeper variety of artful life immersion, where owners can see great art and great architecture almost everywhere they turn, both inside Veer and outside. Finally, you can see the present and the future combined here: what Las Vegas is known for now – and what Las Vegas will been known for in the future."

The residences feel as if they have been built for a population who want the needed amenities in this kind of living – a rooftop pool (see below), hot tub, fitness center, a rec room, private boardroom and business center, bike storage, residential valet and concierge, and 24 hour security, but also, have an eco-sensitivity woven into their texture of lifestyle interests. Veer is the complex that has won a the 6th gold LEED certification for CityCenter, from the US Green Building council, and that has come to matter to many who buy here.

Yet, Veer is also a child of CityCenter –as Veer's artwork is part of CityCenter's fine art collection. It displays two dramatic, hand wrought mud-wall drawings by Richard Long, 8 feet high by 50 feet wide, in the lobby of the west and east tower walls. Veer Towers also rises from Crystals,City Center's 500,000 square foot retail/shopping/entertainment space, where pieces of art by Claes Oldenberg Jenny Holzer, Henry Moore, Maya Lin, Nancy Rubin, to name just a very few, are almost everywhere. Outwardly, as in the rendering above, the same sense of artistic dynamic abides, with the inward inclining Veer Towers almost at its most visual midpoint.

Thoughts on Consumed: Rethinking Business In An Era Of Mindful Spending

A seminal book about changing consumer perceptions and attitudes will be released to the public on July 12. Titled Consumed: Rethinking Business In the Era Of Mindful Spending by Andrew Benett and Ann O'Reilly, it takes the reader on a unique process journey through the history of how consumers came to this post- consumptive stress disordered moment, and what the trend implications are for businesses and consumers in the future.

In a recent interview, Andrew Benett, one of the co-authors, said, " It is much more difficult to change a behavior than to change an attitude, but it is obvious we are seeing a revolutionary attitudinal sea change in the consumer. We are moving from hyper-consumerism of past years to more mindful consumer attitudes at the present, and probably in the future."

Much of the book discusses the results of a new consumer study, created by EURO RSCG Worldwide, and fielded by Market Probe International in October-November 2009. Seven markets were studied, Brazil (n=700), China (n=700), France (n=700), Japan (n=700), the Netherlands (n=700), the United Kingdom (n=700), and the United States (n=1,500). The research was based on an attitude assessment questionnaire, and depicts an historic shift in consumer values and attitudes, as the sample populations showed themselves recalibrating what it means to be a consumer in this hyper-consumptive global village.

In the book, these results are discussed within the larger context of the present socio-economic, depressed, recessed moment, and how this moment is creating a stratum for a newer, evolving consumer mindfulness.

The idea of mindfulness is well-known in philosophy, religion and psychology as it is a present-centered awareness of feeling and thinking. Mindfulness also displays a true mind-body connectivity, allowing greater awareness of what is happening in all cognitive and visceral dimensions. The book reveals how newer consumer decisions have been motivated and modified by this evolved awareness. Some of the more relevant research results are highlighted below:

• In the Western markets surveyed, a majority of the samples believe society is moving in the wrong direction. This concern runs particularly high in France (70% agreement), the U.S. (66%), and the U.K. (63%).

• 69% of the global sample worry that society has become too shallow, focusing too much on things that don't really matter. Again, agreement is strongest in the U.S. (79%), France (77%), and U.K. (75%), although a majority in each of the seven markets agreed.

• Six in ten respondents believe we, as a society, have become intellectually lazy, while nearly seven in ten believe we are physically lazy.

• 59% worry that people have become too disconnected from the natural world. This feeling is particularly prevalent in China (70%), Japan(65%), Brazil (64%), and the U.S. (60%).

• A majority (51%) worry that digital communication is weakening human bonds.

• 67% of the global sample believe most of us would be better off if we lived more simply-with the highest scores coming from the U.S.(78%), China (72%), and the U.K. and Brazil (both at 68%).

• Whereas 70% respect/admire people who live simply, just 19% feel the same about people who live a "high-luxury lifestyle." Only in China and Brazil do a sizeable minority (35% and 31%, respectively) claim to admire people who live luxuriously, but even in those markets more than twice as many respondents admire people who live the simple life.

• Signaling one aspect of the simplicity they seek, 68% of the sample (81% in China and 78% in France) said they no longer want lots of "bells and whistles" on the products they buy; they would rather just have the functions they really need.

• Four in ten respondents have adopted or thought about adopting a slower lifestyle.

• 72% of the global sample (80% in the U.S.) are shopping more carefully and mindfully than they used to.

This attitude revolution, whose dimensions relate to slower, more careful choices was inevitable, as Mr. Benett argues in his book as he quotes E.F Schumacher, an economic theorist: "Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility." In other words, prices, cost, acquisition of more and more stuff, cannot rise higher and higher ad infinitum. Gravity does not allow it, nor does common sense gravitas.

As the research shows, the unease about conspicuous consumption has morphed into a positive, counter-measure: with mindfulness taking those buying decisions a little more slowly, with a great deal more precision, all with a new consumer loyalty to brands whose messages relay and reflect the consumer's own -- messages that involves a cleaner environment, toward deeper community, and toward moderation.

Consumed is an elegantly argued, well-cited (footnotes go from page 203 to page 234) book that defines evolutionary and revolutionary consumer changes, whose purchasing cycles have yet to conclude. The book moves from the reasons for historic hyperconsumerism to the conundra faced because of it, to a new movement in attitude and awareness, which, slow though it may be, may indeed profoundly alter consumer buying behaviors for years to come.