Heads up, zillionaire travelers: You could hand a copy of “1,000 Places To See Before You Die” to a travel agent and say, “Book it; first class.”
But then you’d have to actually leave your apartment. Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts’ new venture offers an on-the-water alternative: sales of units on the first-ever wholly residential cruise ship.
For sale now and expected to set sail in 2010, the 112 Four Seasons Ocean Residences range from $3.8 million for an 800-square-foot one-bedroom to over $40 million for a 7,800-square-foot triplex penthouse with a 3,700-square-foot outdoor deck, private elevator and skylight-domed club room.
Four Seasons, in partnership with Ocean Development Group and Bayview Financial, both based in Miami, is developing the 13-deck, 719-foot ship (that’s 48,600 tons), which boasts five-star resort-style amenities.
Each unit will have a private terrace, floor-to-ceiling windows in both living rooms and bedrooms, full-size kitchens, and a private entrance. Homeowner fees for individual units have not been determined, but a comparison with another, similar vessel currently in operation sheds light on the extremely high cost of the luxury life at sea.
The World, launched with much fanfare in 2002, was built to accommodate both apartment owners and cruise passengers. It had condominium residences, which sold at very high prices, but the mix of owners and tourists at sea proved unwieldy. Ultimately, the ship was bought by the residents from the developer, and all the passenger cabins were converted into apartments.
Now, a limited number of units are on sale, ranging from a tiny hotel-room-size studio listed at $825,000, with annual fees totaling over $88,000, to the three-bedroom, 3,242-square-foot penthouse, asking $7.3 million with carrying fees of over half-a-million dollars a year.
Considering the Four Seasons Ocean Residences’ emphasis on five-star service, the annual carrying costs are likely to be considerably more.
Awash in amenities
The new ship, to be built in Helsinki by Aker Yards, will contain 70,000 square feet of public space, including an 11,000-square-foot spa and fitness facility, pool deck, movie theater, shopping promenade, gourmet market, business center with secretarial and video conferencing services, medical center with full-time doctor and nurse, wine cellar, putting greens, driving range and an onboard helipad that allows residents to join the ship at sea.
The cruise ship is scheduled to dock in New York City in early autumn of 2010 for three full days, until, like all good snowbirds, it heads south to Florida and the Caribbean for the winter.
The project was the brainchild of the team at the 100-year-old Ocean Development Group, developer of hospitality vessels for many cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean and Disney.
“Four years ago we came up with the idea to develop a residential vessel that would circumnavigate the globe,” recalls CEO Kristian Stensby, “but we didn’t want to own the brand name, so we contacted Four Seasons.”
Four Seasons bought right in, figuring, says Stensby, “it was a great brand extension for them.” The company will run all the amenities on board, including the four restaurants. The retail facility will be owned by a third-party concessionaire, and the casino will be operated by a European boutique casino operator, yet to be contracted.
According to Danny Warman, vice president of Bayview Financial, the apartments will “look and feel very much like a condo, but will work like a co-op in New York City. People are going to own residency rights on a 50-year lease.” Services and amenities will be sponsored by the homeowners’ association and operated by Four Seasons. The ship will carry approximately 220 crew members.
The ship is designed by Tillberg Design U.S., an architectural firm whose commissions have included the Queen Mary 2 and all three Crystal cruise ships.
Apartments are offered in a choice of three themes: traditional, rich in wood detailing; classic contemporary; and, for nautical purists, yacht, replete with built-in furnishings. The units come fully furnished to ensure that everything contained in the apartments meets strict safety standards. Only artwork and some antiques can be brought aboard.
Baby grand pianos will be allowed, provided they are bolted to the deck.
Burn a piece of bread in the toaster to experience the difference in the design of a kitchen at sea. Metal panels immediately slam shut, enclosing the kitchen and sealing it tight. “The kitchen shuts down as a fire zone,” says Tillberg principal Jim O’Shaughnessy, “the bridge is alerted, and the door is shut and sealed.” Oops.
Paging the Howells
Buyers are likely to be “entrepreneurial, adventurous and desirous of a unique lifestyle,” according to Bayview Financial’s Warman, and will include “sophisticated business people, celebrities and entrepreneurs who have sold their businesses and own multiple homes in different countries. We think the average age will range from 45 to 65.”
“They may like to spend the month of June in London,” says CEO Stensby, “August in Italy or France, work in New York and have their weekend residence in Palm Beach.”
The ship will be in port more than 250 days a year, spending multiple days in most ports. Destinations will range from the typical (say, yawn, Monte Carlo), to the exotic (like the Amazon), to the adventurous (journey through Antarctica).
In addition to an itinerary that aims to hit ports of call at peak season, the cruise ship will track major world events. “We’ll stop for two weeks outside of London for the Olympics in 2012,” says Stensby, and hit “the Carnival in Rio, the America’s Cup and the Grand Prix of Monaco.”
To produce an international on-board ambience, the ship’s marketing program, coordinated by Las Vegas-based Prudential Americana Group, will reach out to elite buyers throughout the world through a select group of brokers. “We’re creating an allocation process throughout the world,” says Warman, to attract buyers in “Ireland, England, Russia, Germany, India, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Latin America.”
U.K.-based brokerage firm Savills International will handle European sales. In the U.S., according to Mark Stark, principal of Prudential Americana, “We’ll open it up to everybody in the Prudential network, specifically those brokers familiar with this type of clientele. It’s going to be very exclusive, based on the relationships with people.”
There will be no hotel rental program per se offered to owners of units on the Four Seasons ship, as there is with most resort-run hotel/condos, but owners will be allowed to sublet their residences privately for a minimum of 30 days.
Once the ship is launched, the homeowners’ association could choose to establish a new rental program, subject to Four Seasons’ approval.