Luxury resort is coming to Kane

Brice Wallace Deseret Morning News

Amanresorts has ultra-luxury resorts in such exotic locales as Thailand, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, France, French Polynesia and Mexico, among others.

"And soon Kane County will be added to that."

Those words from Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. heralded Tuesday's announcement that an investor group will build its second U.S. resort -- a $125 million investment including a hotel, spa and villas -- just west of Lake Powell. Singapore-based Amanresorts is the hotel management partner for the project, expected to be ready in about two years.

The project will be called Amangiri. Most Amanresorts complexes begin with "Aman," and "giri" in Sanskrit means "rock formations," common in the Lake Powell area.

On one side of the buildings will be 400-foot-high rock walls. The other side will feature sand dunes. Investors are hoping tourists -- about 135,000 loyal guests are called "Amanjunkies" -- will be attracted by the opportunities for water sports, boating, fishing, rafting, golf, heliskiing, helicopter tours, a spa, sports, hiking and mountaineering.

"One of the things about Aman, they really do their hotel according to where they are, and it's not a box which is the same all over the world," Christoph Henkel, a lead investor, said during a Wednesday news conference. "So you will find whichever property much more attuned to the local landscape, culture -- you name it -- so each hotel is very, very unique, and that is their strength."

"The most important thing is they come into the destination and they learn and understand that destination first before they put pen to paper," said Guy Heywood, country manager for Amanresorts Americas.

The investors have been acquiring land along the Arizona border for four years and will have about 670 acres in the first phase of Amangiri. The total includes 320 acres purchased from the federal government.

"You start with one thing, it works well, then you keep investing," Henkel said. While the Phase One investment is about $125 million, "from there it will go north. It will be substantially more in the future, but keeping within the spirit of 'small is beautiful,' " he said.

Henkel said great landscapes often lack a "fantastic place to stay." While many European friends of his are "perfectly happy" driving around great landscapes in their RVs, Henkel thought "we could do something else."

"Only Aman is capable of bringing the kind of name and brand recognition to attract that kind of audience that we're looking for, to afford staying in the hotel," Henkel said.

Heywood said Amanresorts' "vision and philosophy" are unique.

"For us, it's all about the destination, bringing our guests to a unique destination," he said. "When you look at our portfolio . . . you look at all of them, they're in fairly unique destinations, with the culture, the rich heritage and obviously the landscape, and that's what we see in southern Utah."

Amanresorts specializes in a "less is more" philosophy, "offering a unique lifestyle experience along with the destination itself," Heywood said.

While Amangiri remains in the design stage, Huntsman said it will lead to 150 construction jobs and 200 permanent jobs.

"We're going to have people knocking on our door from around the world, those who are looking for all kinds of destinations," he said. "And I think this helps the state in terms of expanding the range of possibilities that will be offered to people visiting our state, so it is very much in keeping with our overall travel and tourism theme."

Amanresorts' other U.S. resort is Amangani in Jackson Hole, Wyo. That facility faced the same challenge confronting Kane County's: accessibility. But Amangiri will be a 25-minute drive from an airport in Page, Ariz., that is served by international airports in Denver and Phoenix. E-mail: [email protected]

August 17, 2005

I believe Christoph Henkel owns Dunton Hot Springs in SW CO. He had some amazing plans for this site that I was lucky to look at 4 years ago while staying at Denton Hot Springs. Rolling a steal ball down a track into a hole that would open the door to your room. Lots of unique things that hopfully with Amanresorts behind it he will be able to achieve. I hope they use his plans!
Dunton Hot Springs is a great hotel and Christoph Henkel and Amanresorts could create magic!

Rick Joy is the architect on this one. Its his first Aman. So I doubt there will be any funky Christoph touches...

FYI, Amanresorts no longer operates the Mahakua Hacienda de San Antonio in Colima, Mexico.

Anyone know what's the status of this Aman?

thanks

Got excited about this thread until I tuned into the dates. A google search turned up nothing but several 2005 listings, including this one. Doesn't look like much is happening.

its odd they have announced so many, but only DEL seems to be opening "soon"

capital problems?

A quick google search reveals current opening date of Spring 2008.

http://www.utah.com/travelheadlines/...evelopers.html

Any idea when it will be finished? Is it behind schedule?

there is more discussion in the 2 aman threads.

http://www.trustlands.com/docs/September2008bdmin.pdf

(from 9/11/08, pre lehman)

Thanks for the information. Do you know who the new architect is?

What kind of effect will the Amangiri resort have on surrounding property values. I have seen what Amangani resort has done in Jackson Hole Wy.

Aman has such a bad track record of vaporware announcements never materializing into anything that whenever they (or any of their "partners" or whatever you want to call them) announce a property, it should be called Amanmadoff until it actually opens.

that was certainly an amusing discussion in aman thread.

yam230ho, there isnt anything anywhere near amangiri is there?

There actually is in a area called Greenehaven about a mile or so from it