LVMH, the French owner of Moet and Chandon, Hennessy and Louis Vuitton, has outlined plans to bring its small Cheval Blanc hotel chain to London.
At a public exhibition, the group said it wanted to redevelop two streets in the city’s affluent Mayfair area in order to add a hotel with linked restaurants and an underground spa, high-end retail outlets, and a Louis Vuitton café.
The Cheval Blanc brand was created in 2006 and has high-end properties in Courchevel, the Maldives, Saint-Barthelemy and Saint Tropez. Another is due to open towards the end of the year in former department store La Samaritaine in Paris.
If planning permission for the London development is granted, work would begin at the start of 2020, with a view to opening the hotel in the third quarter of 2022.
Foster and Partners was appointed to finalise designs and add public realm improvements.
The development would be a joint project between LVMH and real instate investor O and H Group, which owns the sites on 8-14 Grafton Street, 163-164 New Bond Street and 22-24 Bruton Lane.
The proposal says the existing buildings on Grafton Street and Bruton Lane are of “limited architectural interest” and would be demolished. It states that new facades will use materials that “blend sensitively with this historic building and enhance the setting and ambience of the Mayfair Conservation Area.”
LVMH recently acquired the Belmond Hotel Group in a $3.2 billion deal that will see it take over a portfolio of 46 hotel, rail and river cruise experiences.