Clockwise from top: The showroom of the new high-end residential condominium dubbed Grand Hyatt Hotel Manila and Residences.

With so many upscale residential condos being built in Metro Manila, developers are coming up with new ways to win over discerning potential residents. To entice buyers, a few builders attached such celebrated international names to their projects. Others went for esteemed brands like The Hyatt.  This renowned chain is among the major selling points of the new hotel and residential complex known as the Grand Hyatt Manila and Residences.

A project of Bonifacio Landmark Realty and Development Corporation (a joint venture between Federal Land and ORIX Japan), Grand Hyatt Manila is being built at the Fort Bonifacio Global City. It will consist of two 66-storey towers; one will house the 438-room hotel while the second tower will contain 22 condo units. It’s a given that every deluxe amenity will be available in both the hotel and the residential units. We don’t need to list them here; the luxuries, the green architectural elements and sophisticated building technology are mandatory in every real estate undertaking that aims to be an exulted address. Yet in this competitive field, the market players must offer something extra to enhance the cachet, justify the price and impress the discriminating buyer.

Grand Hyatt Manila, for instance, not only offers a venerated brand name, it provides the chance to have a home in a place that feels like an upscale hotel. Residents will have access to the hotel’s restaurants and other amenities. They could even have one of these restaurants cater their dinner right in their own home. In fact, the Chicago-based executives of Hyatt, who met with the media last week, just fell short of saying that Grand Hyatt’s tenants are going to be so pampered and very spoiled. “They’ll even have access to services of the hotel concierge,” says John Burlingame, the global head for residential development of Hyatt Chicago, which will be managing the hotel. “They can have hotel reservations or airline reservations checked or confirmed; all these things which hotel guests are entitled to.”

Furthermore, they’ll automatically become members of the Hyatt Gold Passport, a club of sort that entitles them to special perks at the various Hyatt hotels around the world. And there’s the hotel limousine service, which will always be available to residents.  “They will be chauffeured in a Lexus, of course,” so declared Federal Land president Alfred V. Ty, with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. (His family does own Toyota Motor Philippines.)

Federal Land is no stranger to this kind of project. It’s currently building a similar condo in Cebu, this time in connection with the Marco Polo hotel brand.  “It’s about time this concept was brought here,” says Ty. “I presently live in a condo in Makati and in most of the existing condos, residents are pretty much left on their own.  In a place like the Grand Hyatt, the Hyatt brand of hotel service is at your beck and call.”

He adds that building a hotel of this caliber is a major undertaking for any developer because it takes a lot of resources to maintain a hotel carrying the Hyatt name. Everything has to work as if it were just new for years to come.  “The Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong has been around for two decades now and nothing in the place has deteriorated at all. The service and the facilities are and will always be first rate,” he says.

Ty notes that like the hotel and condo being constructed at The Fort, The Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong has 66 storeys and it’s one of the more iconic landmarks in the city. The two towers at The Fort were designed by the architects of the Hong Kong-based Wong + Ouyang while the hotel’s interiors and the common areas of the residences are being designed by Bilkey Llinas Design Limited.  Ty says the Grand Hyatt in Manila is going to be a standout in Metro Manila’s skyline; a stunning landmark with the top of both towers crowned with a shiny gold color scheme.

All these elements and features were obviously designed to boost the prominence of the Grand Hyatt and perhaps its “snob appeal” as well.  Yet the tenants’ list also plays a pivotal role in this so-called snob appeal and future residents will probably wonder who their neighbors might be.  They need not worry since after all, Alfred V. Ty says he’s definitely moving in. That’s exclusivity for you.