REINVENTING A PALACE

Founder and Chairman of the Emerald Palace Group, Nver Mkhitaryan, went all in building the $700 million Emerald Palace Kempinski in Dubai, only to see COVID-19 interrupt operations. After some deft maneuvring, it’s back in business as the Middle East’s first Raffles resort.

- SAMUEL WENDEL

For much of the pandemic, one of Dubai’s most opulent new hotels sat largely empty. The Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai, which opened to fanfare in late 2018 and cost around $700 million to develop, was the creation of real estate developer Never Mkhitaryan. He envisioned it as a European palace fit for royalty: occupying a prime waterfront plot on the glitzy Palm Jumeirah, the hotel features over 6,000 Swarovski chandeliers and columns of pink Portuguese marble, with manicured gardens and swanky villas overlooking a private beach with sand imported from the Maldives.

But less than two years after opening, the property’s future was thrown into doubt, as the resort shut down after COVID-19 began to spread globally in early 2020. Even as Dubai orchestrated one of the world’s fastest vaccine rollouts and local tourism began to recover, the palatial property stayed closed. Then came the news in May 2021 that Kempinski was no longer going to manage the property.

Yet, behind the scenes, people worked to keep the regal hotel ready for business. Engineers, cleaners, security, and in-house interior specialists focused on maintenance and upkeep, while the air conditioning was kept running to ensure the empty five-star hotel and its 391 rooms and suites stayed in perfect condition. And the property wasn’t entirely without guests: social media posts from Conor McGregor in early 2021 revealed that the MMA fighter was using one of its private villas.