"Renaissance amid a recession; Luxury Foxborough hotel confident of business potential despite economy" by Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff | May 16, 2009
FOXBOROUGH - Just down Route 1 from motels with $39 rooms and right next to vacant retail shops at Patriot Place, the chic Renaissance Hotel & Spa plans to open on Monday.
A recession is a precarious time to open a luxury hotel with prices ranging from $189 to $1,000 a night.... But the owners of the 150-room hotel, located across the parking lot from Gillette Stadium with views of the Patriots and Revolution soccer team practice fields, are confident that the five-story hotel will do just fine. In fact, co-owner Mark Stebbins said the deal with the Kraft Group, which owns the Patriots and Patriot Place, includes a provision to add 100 more rooms.
"We're still going to do a great business there," in spite of the down economy, he said.
Paul Sacco, president of the Massachusetts Lodging Association, also is optimistic about the Renaissance's chances for success, mainly because of where the hotel is situated - near Interstate 95, 250,000 square feet of function space, shopping at Patriot Place and the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets, and businesses such as Covidien Ltd., Raytheon Co., EMC Corp., and Samsonite Corp.
Yeah, somehow CORPORATIONS and RICH FOLK are NOT SUFFERING during all of this. Imagine that.
Lots of shimmering glass, crystal chandeliers, and chrome lamps. The dominant color, red, was taken from the Patriots colors. The rooms are plush, decorated in pale gold and brick red, with Aveda shampoo samples in the bathrooms, full-size stainless steel Frigidaire refrigerators in the suites, and 37-inch flat screen TVs.
The lobby opens into a swanky sitting area with couches and zebra-pattern chairs, which flows into the 98-seat restaurant and lounge, Twenty8 Food & Spirits (named for the hotel's address: 28 Patriot Place), which offers everything from $22 seared ahi tuna to chocolate chip cookies baked to order in a stone-hearth oven. A 10,000-square-foot Spa Epoche, opening June 9, features a hair salon, sauna, steam room, and 14 treatment rooms for facials, massage, and aromatherapy.
Being RICH certainly has its privileges, 'eh?
This summer is slated to be the busiest ever at Gillette, Kraft said, which could bode well for the new hotel. The hotel's first test will be Memorial Day weekend, when lacrosse fans come for the NCAA men's lacrosse championships.
There are already some high-profile guests with reservations, according to hotel officials: Elton John's setup team has booked the Renaissance for his July concert with Billy Joel. But there is at least one group that won't be staying in the hotel: NFL teams, which require more meeting space than the hotel has, according to hotel officials.
When there are no games and concerts, Stebbins said, business people will be the hotel's bread and butter....
--more--"
Here's another richers' retreat:
"A Nantucket retreat; In downturn, Nantucket has its share of foreclosures, ailing businesses" by Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff | May 16, 2009
NANTUCKET - .... Traveling the island, signs of the downturn are not obvious. The emblem of the financial crisis - "For Sale" signs flapping on front lawns - are nowhere to be found. "For Sale" signs are not permitted on Nantucket. Houses appear immaculate, even distressed ones, with nary a shingle or shutter out of place. Development at the highest end continues. Workers are busy at the waterfront site of the soon-to-open Great Harbor Yacht Club and the sprawling compound being built by a Canadian mogul on 9 acres overlooking Surfside Beach.
Yet, at the tax collector's office, behind closed doors, wealthy residents have explained that they can't come up with thousands of dollars owed in property taxes. The stock market, some said, was to blame. "Some people have cried, some were angry," said Elizabeth Brown, the tax collector. "We've listened and supported them and tried to help them."
Oh, I'M REALLY FEELING BAD for the poor, poor, richer elite!!
The sense of frustration here is acute. The boom transformed this island into one of the wealthiest redoubts in the nation, as hedge fund managers and investment bankers raced from Weston and Greenwich, Conn., to outbid one another for shingled palaces in Pocomo, the Cliff, and Dionis, pushing real estate prices into the stratosphere.
And then they brought in the people to do the work: Nantucket Has 9,000 Illegals
Once again, the Globe proves its love for agenda-pushing illegality.
Yet in the first quarter of 2009, real estate transactions were down.... The decreases have left town coffers depleted. C. Elizabeth Gibson, the town manager, said the town considered coming up with a "wish list" - an appeal to the island's wealthiest residents for financial assistance. But the idea died.
Then RAISE TAXES!!! That's ALWAYS the SOLUTION or the REST of US!!!!
"There are charitable groups that need the money more," she said.
Like me!
Meanwhile, in a squeaker of a vote, residents at Town Meeting approved the construction of a new police station, but it will be partially outfitted with used furniture, remains from the old station.
Sensing a potentially hard summer, businesses such as the Nantucket Gourmet are cutting back inventory. The store is stocking fewer Cuisinarts, jars of Nantucket Secret Spice and Nantucket Pepperguns - the sorts of things that private chefs tend to dash in for before a dinner party. Other businesses are competing in ways they have never had to before. John Merson, who rents renovated historic homes, said he is throwing in a catered dinner and groceries as part of the $5,000 weekly rental price this year.
"People are asking for discounts, bargaining hard," he said. "I am trying to use services to compete so I don't have to negotiate price."
Amid all of this are the gleeful real estate trollers. In the parlance of brokers, there are "screaming deals" to be had.
Then what are you guys complaining about?
One example: 3 Pochick Ave., a five-bedroom, five-bath house with a cabana set in a field of lovegrass that recently sold, according to town records, for $3.74 million. The previous owner paid $4.35 million two years earlier....
I'm gonna have trouble getting the loan.... you?
