Richard Chiu

President and Founder of the Warwick Hotels and Resorts (WHR) Group Richard Chiu told Guardian Business that the group intends to use the Warwick Paradise Island as a training ground for its North American business. The Paradise Island property is the first of WHR's 51 "distinct and upscale hotels and resorts worldwide" in the Caribbean.

Chiu sat with Guardian Business at the newly renovated property just days after a delayed soft launch to discuss his vision for the property, among other things. One of the major themes of the conversation was the quality of the Bahamian workforce.

Paradise
Chiu said The Bahamas has a "very, very capable and well-educated people."

"The level of people here compared to some of the resorts we have in the Pacific, you have a good base to build on," he said, pointing out that 99 percent of the staff at the Warwick P.I. is Bahamian.

Chiu told Guardian Business that his intention is to recruit the finest people in The Bahamas.

"We always wanted to have some place in North America -- and this is part of our North American operations -- where we could train a lot of good food and beverage people, and I think this is the place, because in America talents come and go very quickly. But here in The Bahamas what we found is that there are very talented people, but they are underutilized. So what we hope to do is to train up and have a base of very good food and beverage people here, where we have five restaurants.

"What we're looking for is to build our core North American staff in this hotel that we can use in our other North American hotels. This is one of our business objectives," he said.

Food
Chiu also pulled back the curtain a bit on the marketing strategy: the Warwick P.I. will have an emphasis on food.
"The quality of our food is to be our priority. And when I look around the talent we have in this hotel, all our chefs are local people with the exception of one. The pastry chef is very talented, and she is a local person. So we would want people to come back to this resort not only because of the facilities we have, but I hope because of the food. That's our emphasis," he said.

Later in the conversation, Chiu elaborated.

"We're going after people who want to have a few days of fun and food, good food. Whoever they are...What we are going to present to the market is that you want to come here for a few days and forget about what you're doing the rest of the time. We promise you that while you're here, you'll have a lot of fun...and excellent food and beverage," he said.

He stressed that Paradise Island is already well known, pointing to Atlantis, and stressed that the Warwick isn't going after the same market.

Investment
Chiu noted that he bought the property shortly after the financial crisis, when it was in bankruptcy.

"Let's say it wasn't that costly, because I think I am still bound by certain agreements not to disclose because it was a specific acquisition deal with the creditors. But I can tell you, if you look at the entire investment, which includes the renovation, the planning, it's probably a few million short of $50 million," he said.

He discussed why this particular property attracted his attention.
"The fact is, if you look at our hotels, there's a certain consistency amongst them.

"First of all they have to be in a good location because when people spend a few days in a city, at a resort, they don't have weeks: they like to be in the middle of something. So I always look for properties that are in a good location, and this is a good location.

"Secondly I always look for properties that's got some history, so people don't think that I'm just another block building.
"And that's what I've tried to do," Chiu said.

Indeed, Chiu's first hotel was the iconic 426-rooms Warwick New York, a flagship hotel built in 1926 by media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. He referred to the Dallas property built in 1924, and the Chicago property in the middle of Michigan Avenue -- "arguably the best hotel site in the whole city" -- which features a Spanish facade.

"This is what we try to do, is to find buildings that's got some history to it, some relationship with the place... So this building we like because of that, because it's been here for a long time and because it was badly in need of works. Badly.

"So we figured that this would suit us, because one thing we're good at is renovations. We've renovated many hotels, and we know what to do. So when we looked at this building, we thought this is an opportunity for us in The Bahamas," he said.

Resort
Warwick P.I. is being touted as "the premier adults-only, all-inclusive hotel set along Nassau Harbour with views of Nassau and Paradise Island." The resort features 250 rooms on 12 floors, four dining options, two bars, a fully equipped fitness centre, entertainment and activities, an onsite gift shop and a tour desk offering sightseeing options.

A signature feature of the resort is the 10,000 sq. ft. Warwick Sea Terrace overlooking the harbour marinas complemented by an outdoor steak and seafood restaurant. The Sea Terrace has an arrivals' dock and an expansive boardwalk featuring a unique waterside wedding belvedere offering a picture-perfect backdrop for destination weddings.
The resort will feature an onsite, full-service spa and salon to open in late fall 2016 with services available for an additional charge.

K. Quincy Parker, Guardian Business Editor

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