Vlad Doronin Joining Forces With South Korea Juggernaut

Vlad Doronin’s global conquest for the Aman brand is taking the company to South Korea and beyond.

Doronin’s OKO Group and the Shinsegae Group, one of the top retail conglomerates in the Asian nation, formed a fund to develop luxury hotels and more, Bloomberg reported. The fund is being launched with an initial $500 million investment.

The partners are kicking things off with a mixed-use project in Seoul’s Gangnam District, which will include an Aman hotel, residences and a club, according to Doronin. As they continue to fundraise, the partners will expand out into more of Asia, the Middle East and the United States.

“They are strong in retail,” Doronin said of the partnership. “I can develop the residential and hotels. We compliment each other.”

While Aman was once known for its hard-to-reach luxury enclaves, Doronin has brought the brand closer to cities since taking over in 2014, such as Aman New York. In the last four years, Aman has sold $9 billion in branded residences, according to Doronin.

The brand boasts approximately 20 hotels under construction, spanning locations from Beverly Hills to Singapore. A penthouse at the under-construction Aman Beverly Hills is poised to sell for $200 million, which would shatter the Los Angeles record for a closed condo sale, which stands at $39.2 million.

The Aman Beverly Hills, a component of OKO Group and Cain’s $10 billion One Beverly Hills project, already secured more than $1 billion in condo reservations or contracts since sales began early last year.

Last year, it was reported that Doronin was on the hunt for as much as $2 billion in funding, hoping to secure funds from both institutional investors and wealthy individuals. Among the projects Doronin had in the works at the time were $39 million mansions in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, a pair of luxury buildings in Dubai with 39 apartments each and a 150-key hotel in Dubai’s financial district.

There were another 39 projects in the pre-development phase, which were yet to be officially announced. Doronin is aiming to expand further into the Middle East and Africa, in addition to creating more hotels under the Janu brand, which caters to younger customers by taking away some of the seclusion aspects of the Aman brand.

While being a top retailer player on the other side of the Pacific, Shinsegae is a lesser known entity stateside. A few years ago, it paid $250 million for a 209-acre Napa Valley vineyard.

— Holden Walter-Warner