MauiLifeStyleBlog

The Honolulu Advertiser   Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Starwood to build luxury Maui hotel

By Oliver Staley, Bloomberg News Service

NEW YORK - Starwood Capital Group LLC has chosen Wailea, Maui, as the location for the first in a new worldwide chain of luxury Baccarat Hotels and Resorts inspired by the 243-year-old French crystal manufacturer.

The first Baccarat hotel will open in Wailea in 2010, Starwood Capital said in a statement yesterday.

Other locations will follow in the Mainland U.S., Caribbean, Europe and Asia, it said without giving more details.

Starwood Capital is headed by Barry Sternlicht, who built Starwood Hotels into the third-largest U.S. lodging company. Sternlicht took over France's only profitable crystal maker from the Taittinger family in 2005 when he bought a majority stake in Societe du Louvre SA. Starwood Capital wants to transform Baccarat into a global luxury brand, company executives said in interviews last year.

Starwood Capital, based in Greenwich, Conn., is developing the "1" chain of luxury environmentally themed hotels. It's also part of a group bidding on Riviera Holdings Corp., a casino company.

Sternlicht established Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. in 1995 and resigned as its chairman 10 years later.