The Arizona Biltmore, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, has completed the remodeling and renovation of its 22,000sq ft (2,044sq m) spa facility – part of the multi-million dollar revamp of the property previously known as the Grand Dame of Phoenix. Originally built in 1929, Waldorf Astoria has kept the architectural features designed by Frank Lloyd Wright intact. The 740-bedroom resort’s spa has undergone floor-to-ceiling interior remodeling and is now home to

The Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Centre has opened its newly renovated men’s spa, designed by GA Design International. Akram Kawasmeh, senior director of spa for Four Seasons in the Middle East and Africa, spoke exclusively to Spa Opportunities – detailing the SAR10m (US$2.7m, €2.3m, £1.8m) refurbishment that started at the end of May 2014 and ended in December 2014. The 274-bedroom hotel occupies 11 floors of the tallest

Carlson Rezidor plans to open a new Radisson Blu branded hotel, complete with a balneotherapy-centric spa, in the French city of Bordeaux – the wine capital city of the world. The 125-bedroom Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa Bordeaux will be built north of the city’s UNESCO-protected centre as part of ‘Les Bassins à Flots’ – a mixed-use complex that is currently the largest real estate development in France: facilitated by

The Six Senses Zil Pasyon resort, located on the private island of Félicité in the Seychelles, is scheduled to open in July 2015 with a Six Senses Spa and a yoga pavilion on the granite boulders that punctuate the shoreline. Designed by Richard Hywel Evans of Studio RHE, the resort will comprise 28 one-bedroom villas, two two-bedroom villas and 17 private residences – all with private pools. Six Senses will

Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts has signed a memorandum of understanding with developers Summit Group of Nepal to collaborate on the first of four hotels to be built across the country as part of a development rollout. The five-star Leela Kathmandu – designed by John Gerondolis of Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates of Atlanta, US – will be the first hotel created by the partners, to capitalise on tourism

Virgin Hotels and owner/developer Lam Group have revealed building designs for their first project together in New York City, expected to open in 2017. VOA Architecture has been appointed as architect and interior designer for the new structure, which includes a street-long high-end retail space, 457 guest rooms, multiple food and beverage outlets – including a rooftop bar – plus an outdoor pool and spa. The spa’s details have not

Dubai developer of integrated communities, Emaar Properties, has opened The Burj Club – an exclusive fitness and wellness retreat in Downtown Dubai, adjacent to the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa. The 6,320sq m (62, 028sq ft) five-storey health club comprises a fitness centre, spa, juice bar and rooftop pool. Male and female sectioned gym facilities spread across 590sq m (5,597sq ft). The equipment is all connected to the centre’s ‘mywellness’

Developers are cashing in on the redevelopment of a resort originally built by the Third Reich in the run-up to World War II – part of a Nazi vision for the future of tourism. The project saw blocks of six-storey buildings, stretching 2.8 miles (4.5km), erected on the Baltic Sea and nicknamed the ‘Colossus of Prora’. Construction of the 10,000-key complex slowed during WWII and it was briefly claimed by

Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts has five new openings planned around the world for 2015 in Hawaii, Morocco, Korea, the Kingdom of Bahrain and Florida. The first to open, in early 2015, is the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay – which you can read about here. This property will feature the largest spa in the Four Seasons portfolio. Scheduled to launch on 1 March 2015, the 273-bedroom hotel – designed

Starwood’s Westin Turtle Bay Resort & Spa has opened in the historic Turtle Bay of Balaclava on the north west coast of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Located 15km (9m) from the island’s leisure hub Grand Baie and 15km (9m) from the capital of Port-Louis, the 190-key resort is spread across 10 hectares (25 acres) of land. The resort’s 1,500sq m (16,146sq ft) Heavenly Spa features 10 treatment rooms, a

Nikki Beach Hotels & Resorts, a division of Nikki Beach Worldwide, plans to open its first Middle Eastern property in Dubai, working alongside local development company Meraas Holding. DSA Architects and interior design firm Gatserelia Design will create the 52,000sq m (560,000sq ft) five-star resort on Pearl Jumeirah – set to open in Q3 of 2015. It will include 117 rooms and suites, 14 beach villas, a separate 1,350sq m

A planning application by Swinton Park for a 2,700sq m (29,063sq ft) country club and spa extension in North Yorkshire, UK, has been approved. The £5.5m (US$8.6m, €7m) project at the estate, which has been owned by the Cunliffe-Lister family since the 1880s, will be designed by Manchester-based architecture firm NJSR. It will involve the restoration of traditional workshops and garden buildings that are adjacent to the Grade II-listed 31-bedroom

JCJ Architecture of San Diego, known for designing large-scale casino hotel complexes, has been selected to plan the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians’ 22-acre (9-hectare) downtown site in Palm Springs, US – to transform it into the tribe’s next hotel entertainment district. It is not yet known how many rooms the new hotel will have or if any expansion to the current spa casino is envisioned, however tribal chair

The Brenners Park Hotel in Baden Baden, Germany – the flagship property of the Oetker Collection – will launch its destination health spa Villa Stéphanie on 15 January 2015. The spa will feature 15 treatment rooms overlooking the Park’s gardens, a 500sq m (5,382sq ft) sauna, kneipping baths, a plunge pool for recovery, a hammam, a ladies spa and sauna, a fitness centre plus physio and spinal treatment facilities. The

Work has started on South Korea’s first integrated resort – Paradise City in Incheon – which is scheduled open next to Incheon International Airport in the first half of 2017. A number of the industry’s leading architecture and design practices have been working on the US$1.7bn (€1.4bn, £1.1bn) casino, hotel, spa and theme park project, including WATG, GA Design International, Hirsch Bedner Associates, Hawkins Brown, Lifescapes International and Gansam Architects.

The Miami Beach EDITION – a collaboration between entrepreneur Ian Schrager and operator Marriott International – has launched in the thriving Florida city. Located on a 3.5-acre (1.4-hectare) enclave stretching from Collins Avenue to the shoreline, the 294-key property and its 28 bungalows are an interlinked complex of structures that have been designed by Schrager to embody a “lifestyle revolution” – blurring the lines between work and play. The resort

Karma Royal Group recently announced the introduction of its first property in the UK – the only hotel on St Martin’s island, part of the Isles of Scilly archipelago off the most westerly point of England. Renowned UK interior designer Nicky Haslam is in charge of fully refurbishing the interiors of the 30-key luxury resort, called Karma St Martin’s, which is nestled on 2.8 hectares of sloping terrain and overlooks

Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo has relaunched after several months of renovation, offering two new cryotherapy rooms, in addition to expanded facilities and 28 medical experts. Established in 1895, the expanded 7,000sq m (75,357sq ft) wellness centre is a subsidiary of the Société des Bains de Mer (SBM) – a public company controlled by the Principality of Monaco. It now comprises 30 treatment rooms, seven private cabanas and employs 28 health specialists

Aqua Boracay by YOO, a five-star 168-bedroom hotel, is set to launch in the last quarter of 2015 in the Philippines. The property is designed by YOO Studio, an international development and branding company led by property entrepreneur John Hitchcox and designer Philippe Starck. Set on 16,000sq m (17,222sq ft) of lush tropical gardens, the beachfront resort on the island of Boracay is the first YOO-branded resort residence in the

JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts have revealed further spa details for its first Italian hotel in Venice - and its first resort in Europe - opening in March 2015. Architecture practice Matteo Thun & Partners is in charge of converting historic buildings on the Isola delle Rose (Rose Island – also known as Sacca Sessola ) into a sustainability-focused 266-key luxury hotel, holiday villas, convention centre and a spa –

The Heritage Lottery Fund has pledged a further £11.3m (US$18m, €14m) towards the scheme to redevelop Buxton Crescent and Thermal Spa, in addition to the £12.5m (US$20.5m, €14.9m) it awarded the project in 2006. The project to repair and restore the Grade I-listed building into a five-star thermal spa and 79-bedroom hotel is jointly owned by Derbyshire County Council and High Peak Borough Council and is expected to open at

The brand new International helo Sauna & Spa Academy is offering two-day training sessions for architects and project planners on how to design spas according to the latest trends and efficiency targets. The German thermal spa zone supplier helo created the academy – located in Knüllwald-Wallenstein, Germany – which will teach architects and project planners about the design possibilities for spas – using helo’s range of saunas, heaters, control equipment

The sustainable community called Serenbe outside Georgia's capital Atlanta, US, is developing a new ‘hamlet’ focused on wellness and healthy living, with special assisted-living services for older adults. With its organic farm and land-use plan that encourages conservation of agricultural land, Serenbe is a real estate development that preserves and invests in agricultural land use. Owned by Serenbe – and founded by Steve and Marie Nygren – the first house

One of the largest spas in the Four Seasons portfolio is set to open in early 2015 at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay in the centre of the Kingdom’s capital city, Manama. Scheduled to launch on 1 March 2015, the 273-bedroom hotel – designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill – rises 68 stories above the Bahrain Bay on its own 12-acre oval-shaped man-made island. Restaurants, meeting spaces, terraces, gardens

The first Rosewood hotel in Asia has opened its doors in Beijing, China, in the central Chaoyang district opposite the iconic CCTV Tower. The 22-storey hotel, designed by Melbourne-based design firm BARstudio – in collaboration with Bangkok-based landscape architects PLandscape – has been inspired by traditional Chinese paintings. The 283-guestroom hotel is owned by New World Group and its business affiliates, while New World Development Company is the majority shareholder

The FJD85m (US$45m, €35m, £28m) Pearl South Pacific Resort’s three-phase development in Fiji’s Pacific Harbour is on track for completion and a grand opening ceremony in August 2015. The resort will offer an 18-berth marina, 400-seat conference centre, 250-seat fine dining restaurant, wedding chapel and numerous wellness facilities. Developers and owners, Papua New Guinea’s Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC), took over operations in 2012, when the resort’s construction began. Pacific

Alfredo Carvajal has been appointed president of International and Signature Programs for Delos, the US-based company behind the Well Building Standard® ( see Spa Business 14/1 p36 ). Previously Carvajal operated as COO of spa and leisure consultancy WTS International, which works in collaboration with Delos. As part of the alliance, WTS is integrating Delos’ evidence-based wellness features into the facilities it designs. In his new role – starting November