Source (click to view): Luxury Insider/Ashok SomanIn what may be a first for the luxury goods world, Italian luxury goods group Bulgari recently announced their first branded residential villas project. While the group already has a city hotel property in Milan and a resort in Bali, this residential project constitutes a real leap.
This is what the brand is doing, briefly: Five single family villas (starting at USD6 million) designed by Antonio Citterio and Partners will be built adjacent to the Bulgari Resort in Bali, Indonesia. Like the Bulgari Resort, all the villas are expected to have excellent views of the Indian Ocean.
Obviously, the challenge for Bulgari and the developers will be in transposing the values of the brand from conventional luxury goods (i.e. jewelry, watches and accessories) to real estate, without the benefit of an established path.
According to Bulgari, the inspiration for this development came from the Bulgari Villa, effectively the presidential or penthouse property of the Bulgari Resort. In many ways, this real estate development is even more exciting than a Bulgari jet or yacht would be. We expect the entire luxury industry to watch this development closely for years to come.
In fact, discussions on the possibility of developing branded real estate have been ongoing for more than a decade now but that was largely about real estate brands, such as Trump.
In this case though, the project is not directly under the Bulgari Group. Operating under license from Bulgari S.p.A. the group’s Indonesian partners are executing and managing the project. These parties include entrepreneur Soetikno Soedarjo, CV Buana Restuabadi and Star Lucky International Pte Ltd. Jones Lang LaSalle is handling sales inquiries.
