S17 E02: Ons Gherib, SVP of Design & Construction at Belmond

[Music] You're listening to the luxury item, the podcast on the business of luxury and the people and companies that are shaping the future of the luxury industry. Here's your host, Scott Kerr. [Music] My guest on the luxury item is Anz Gereb, senior vice president, designing construction at Belmont, the luxury hospitality subsidiary of LVMH. With a legacy spanning over 45 years, since the acquisition of Hotel Chippriani and Venice in 1976, Belmont operates a diverse global portfolio of 43 properties, which spans hotels, trains, safari lodgers and boats, all guided by the ethos of slow luxury, where guests are invited to discover a new pace of travel and to foster deep connections with nature, local culture and people. Anz Gereb joined Belmont in January 2025 as senior vice president of designing construction and has played an instrumental role in Belmont's journey to elevate its offerings to new heights of luxury and guest experience. He is responsible for refining Belmont's designing construction process to ensure efficiency and excellence in project execution and for identifying and collaborating with some of the world's most talented designers and architects who further enrich Belmont's creative vision and commitment to crafting experiences. Anz has a wealth of global experience in luxury design and architecture, having held leadership positions at prestigious brands including Chanel, Mont Blanc, and most recently, Son Laurent, where he was global director of architecture and real estate. Welcome to the luxury item, Anz. Hi, Scott. Thank you so much for joining me. I feel special. Last month was your one year anniversary at Belmont. And you have a long background in architecture, retail design and luxury store planning for major global fashion houses before joining Belmont, holding leadership positions for world-class luxury brands like Chanel, Mont Blanc, Son Laurent. What is your take? This is sort of a general question. What is your take on the current state of the luxury industry? First of all, let me say that I was extremely enthusiastic about the idea of joining Belmont. And as you said, it's been one year now, a little bit over one year, and had the chance to travel the world and see almost all our properties and it was an extremely exciting year. What I've seen and what I've discovered is this idea of what we call slow luxury. I think that's more than just a trend. It's something that sets us apart from competition and makes us so special as a brand where we invite our guests to slow down to connect with the environment, with the place they spend their vacation, with their families. And so for me, that's probably the most important aspect that we are looking right now in luxury in general. Yeah, and Belmont has been explicitly framing its strategy around slow luxury since the last few years and has actually doubled down on its formal strategic pillar from 2024, right up until its current plans. And Belmont CEO Dan Ruff described slow luxury as being this, you know, as really being at the heart as you were talking about of the Belmont experiences. And as the concept through which you shape new trains, villas, cultural collaborations and wellness offerings, what is Belmont's slow luxury approach? And how does that approach show up in design and construction decisions? It is, I would say, in every aspect in the architecture that we create for our properties. First of all, I would say that we are extremely lucky that our properties are all landmarks and historical monuments in the sense. So whenever you start working on these properties and these projects, we think about our guests. We think about how can we invite our guests to pause, to relax, to spend a moment for themselves, or be in connection with themselves with the people they are surrounded with. We try to create places where you can slow down, where you can sit in the shade, watch a garden, the ocean, and all these things that you know, give you this invite you to really slow down and to enjoy the moment. It's all about this particular moment that you can give. What materials best convey slow luxury and hotel interiors? It's a very good question because when we work with the team and with the architects, we ask ourselves that question as well. So, beyond that very practical approach to materiality and hospitality, I think what is really important is warmth that you feel, something that gives you this feeling of being enveloped. We work a lot with lots of fabrics that we layer. We love a lot of layering, like we're adding layers of materials to our rooms, to our spaces, to our lobbies. And then I think almost more important than a material is probably how you work with daylight and how you get daylight into your property and into your rooms and how you invite your guests to also connect to the exterior. We work a lot with viewpoints, with vistas, with what do I see when I sit in that specific place in the garden, what's the view over this landscape. So, it's difficult to reduce it to a material, but it's more about conveying a feeling of being kind of feeling just the moment and being well in that specific moment. And that a lot of materials can convey it. Does the idea of slow luxury also resonate with younger guests? Absolutely. I think nowadays I think a universal need just to have that moment for yourself. And it's, I would, and convinced that it's not only reduced to the older generation, I think everybody needs that and it looks for that. You know, your background, you were, like I said before, you had some of the top luxury brands, Chanel, etc. What are some of the biggest differences in creating unique luxury retail environments for luxury fashion houses and creating design and construction story for luxury hospitality? Great question, because when I joined Benmung, it was a bit like my, you know, the first learning, learnings that I had is like, I would say that retail design or luxury retail design is extremely efficient in a sense. So, it's at the end, you stage a product. It's a beautiful, mostly handcrafted product that you, where is it? We really work on the mise en scène. So, it's extremely focused. It's efficient. It's straight to the point. There is probably also in the retail industry nowadays more experimental retail design, but at the end it's a lot about the product. The lighting has to be perfect on the product. There's a lot of technical aspects which make you that, you know, help in putting forward the product at the end. Hospitality is all about the person, the guest. It's about how you feel in this property, how you move in this property, how you rest in the property. So, when we work on our spaces, it's a lot about proportions, about, as I said before, daylight, about beautiful materials, about touching, about feeling. So, then at the end, we want you to convey a feeling to the space. So, I think that's the huge difference. And then of course, I retain types of scale. There's a big difference. I'll tell you it's much more complex in its design, in its approach, in its, also in the strategic approach to a project. So, there's less this straightforward going to the efficient product staging. Belmont has been executing a multi-year group wide renovation and, as I call, an asset rejuvenation plan across many of its hotels, trains, boats, experiences. Were you surprised about the design culture of Belmont when you joined? Absolutely. And it is absolutely unique. I think working in Belmont, no other brand in general, I mean, is working that way. We start every project with a black page. We write a story, within our company with our colleagues on the marketing department. And so we. Because it's the brand positioning, we anchor all the stories in our three principles, which is slow, luxury, contemporary heritage and discerning innovation. And from that point on, it would say everything is possible. There is no such thing as a design guideline or a Bible or a book, which we refer to. And Ben Gondy would never find two times the same art chair. If you go to the January or Florence, the approach to design, the approach to the concept is completely different. So I think that's something that's absolutely unique. We create a relationship with the project in a sense where we try to understand the location, we try to understand the history of the building, we try to understand what's the craftsmanship that we have there that's a specific place. We talk to local craftsmen, we talk to local architects, we talk to local designers, to local artists. And that creates a unique and different story for every project. I think nobody else does that in this creative industry. I think we are absolutely unique. Is that the first time they've had your position, someone in that role? No, it's not the first time. But I think there's the first time where we had this multi-year strategic approach to renovating our properties. And as you know, all our properties are amazing landmarks and historic, most of them, historic buildings. So it was a kind of really structured approach to the renovation of our network. And that's a multi-year plan, which you are now executing. So what was your role when they brought you on? What were you tech to do? We are quite a bit team of designers, interior designers, engineers, architects. And the idea was to structure this group of creative people and to start working on the renovation of our properties. As I said, it's a very structured approach. So we had a very clear plan, what we are doing in the next years, also the next five years. So all that is now taking a very structured approach, working on our projects. Belmont has been around for about 50 years, beginning with the founder James Sherwoods acquisition, the iconic hotel Chippewaani in Venice back in 1976. Then he immediately began acquiring and restoring original 1920s and 30s oriental express carriages with the goal of running luxury trains from Paris London directly to his hotel. This was followed by focusing on more unique assets like legendary hotels, trains, safari camps, etc. What was James Sherwoods strategic idea behind the brand in the first place? I would say that there are two aspects to that. First, I think it's about a collection of iconic, almost landmarks from an architectural point of view. Today, I'm lucky to have within the Belmont group. Then there is an idea of the experience of the journey, not only the property, which is covered by our trains and cruises aspect. So I think there was almost two ideas, which were like layered and which are still very relevant today. An LVMH acquired Belmont in 2019 and framed Belmont as a strategic experiential luxury house. LVMH generally amplified Belmont's rather than just rewriting it, pushing more investment, visibility and mason level polish into what was already a strong experiential luxury brand. Under LVMH's ownership, Belmont is now part of a larger luxury ecosystem. How has that investment played out in Belmont's expansion and product development? I think what both LVMH and Belmont have in common is this sense of excellence. And I would say that the acquisition of Belmont pushed us even further into this focus on excellence, working on the properties and the network that we have. And which allows us to go very deep into our projects, into our renovations, into push the boundaries when it comes to a perfect execution of a project. While major hotel groups race to sign management deals and expand their global footprints, Belmont has taken a different approach, spending capital to renovate its existing properties rather than pursuing growth. The strategy really marks a sharp departure from industry norms where scale through asset light expansion has become the dominant path to higher fee revenue. What's the advantage of renovating existing assets versus pursuing growth? First of all, from a lack of extra point of view, I would say it is much more exciting. When you work on a historic building and your job is to preserve and to preserve the beauty of a historic building, I think that's the most beautiful thing that you can use in architect. And we are very lucky to have this iconic properties all around the world. As an example, we are currently working on a project in Kofa Fabana Palace in what you call the pooling. An amazing building from the 40s, in a very particular style called, which was in Brazil, like in between Armourville and Modernist. When you work on this kind of project, and it's been now a year we are working on this project, it pushes you really to go deep into the history of that building to understand what were the thoughts of the architect who created it and what makes it relevant for the next 20 years. So we were with the local historic building department, to try to understand what was there, what we need to preserve, what is beautiful and that facade. And we found all this incredible little detailing on the ballast trade, which we are keeping and which are enhancing and which helped us to write a new story in the interior as well. So that was like a kind of script which helped us then develop something and create something in the interior, which is modern, like contemporary, but also respect the heritage of the building. And then we work with this amazing craftsman, which we find when we work on this landmarks in a sense, because there is a pride also to work for Kofa Fabana Palace. So we had this gentleman, for example, who is working with local materials who goes into the Amazon Forest and he finds this little piece of wood and he creates this market ring with it. And we worked with this gentleman and he was so proud to create something for the Kofa Fabana Palace, which is obviously the most historical building in any of the genre. Which you could never, you know, in a sense create when you build something kind of scratch, right? So I think we are extremely lucky to have this collection of historical buildings and to prepare them for the next 20, 30 years. Belmont has established a series of high profile collaborations with renowned interior design firms architects and artists to restore and reimagine these historic icons, you know, grand hotels, trains, river boats, things like that. How does the slow luxury philosophy shape the way you brief these architects, interior designers and artists? As I said earlier, what we do is when we start the project is that we write this almost a book about our property, the history of our book property, how we position the property. And then my question to the architects or designers or artists is, what is your take on Belmont? How do you see Belmont? Right. And we are curious to see that point of view of our company. And we work with them in developing our values, like the slow luxury within the design. And at the end, very naturally, it's almost a naturally it develops to something which we see they immediately understand. I'll give you an example of the JR car in the very similar Cipranorian Express, which we did recently. I mean, this whole car is just a collection of amazing little detailing and it is the example of slow luxury bikes and all. So the whole car is filled with beautiful little spaces, benches, seating, cushions, the bed with the glass ceiling way to observe the sky. So the whole story is slow luxury and you know when we work with them. with JR, there was almost naturally this evolution towards these kinds of ideas. And then we come into this moment where we kind of co-create. And there is a dialogue happening. And yeah, that's the way we work with creative people. I mean, all of our examples are beautiful examples of slow actually which are a bit everywhere around the globe. And your rail business has really become a brand amplifier that complements Belmont's hotel and River Cruz assets. Belmont is one of the major players in ultra luxury train travel. The Venice Simplon Orient Express is arguably the most famous train in the world and Art Deco icon. It's comprised of meticulously restored carriages from the 1920s. Luxury train travel is entering this new golden age, if you will. Now, what do you think is driving the resurgence of luxury train travel? I was lucky enough to travel on a very long trail several times now. And what makes it so special is that you enter almost in a time capsule. Like when you enter the Venice Simplon Orient Express, you enter in the world of Art Deco, right? So you're surrounded by all these beautiful little details by the materials, by the marketery. You have this absolutely amazing perfect service around you. And it's like once the door closed and you sit by the window and you just look outside and you travel, it's like really being this beautiful little bubble. And when we work on the details and when we work on the design, we enhance this feeling. We add where we did the restoration of the details. We work even more even harder with the craftsman to make it absolutely perfect. So that it looks absolutely as the carriages it was when it was created. And I mentioned earlier that the project we did with GR, where we, what was interesting is that we added this contemporary side to the heritage, which we think makes it even more interesting. It should not feel like old and dusty, but it's a contemporary take to the heritage. And there's a very interesting side of innovation, the discerning innovation, which we like very much. So all that creates something which is an absolutely amazing environment, and which almost transports you, which don't from you in a different time. - Crasmanship, local sourcing and culture are really central to Belmont's identity. How early in a project do you bring local artisans or makers into the conversation? And how do you avoid falling into those clashes of local flavor? - It's a very good question, Scott. Because it's very easy to fall in this kind of plastic design, let's copy that in 1920's, chair in a sense, no? It is not Belmont. Belmont is all about being authentic. And your question is like at what stage do we involve local craftsmen? It's like basically from the beginning. They are part of the project. I want to just talk about two examples here. - Sure. - Villa Biettece, which is this beautiful villa in the gardens of in Botto Fino just next to this planet hotel, which we completed last year. It is a 1930, very particular, Ligoya Neo-Gothic style, something that is absolutely particular to this region, built by a very famous local architect at time for a family, it was a family home, actually, it was a family vacation home. And so the whole facade was covered with amazing paintings, frescoes, which were like, they were telling all these stories about the sea and the history, et cetera. So the first thing we did was we went there with local craftsmen and the building department and said, "What can we do with this facade?" It's so beautiful, we have to restore this, no? And but we have to restore it in a very authentic way. So let's find the colors. Let's take the time to really recreate this facade. So the facade, if you see it, if you have the chance one day to see it in real, it is one that facade that was created initially times the Capade. And inside the villa, we found, we started to do what we did, we knew what we wanted to do. So we took this layer as a way that we're editing the '60s and '70s and plasterboarded ceilings. And we discovered this amazing wooden ceilings in all the rooms. So other rooms had beautiful hand painted wooden ceilings, which had a lot of aliebroy, and you know, there was telling very similar stories as well. So we took the same approach, we worked with this local person who knew exactly it's a long process that they found exactly the colors, they re-created the colors that we were there initially. And the tall ceilings now are an incredible features in that villa. So we gave it almost, it came back, it's initial splendor, which is absolutely amazing. And you know, we did talk about slow lecture, it's also our take on slow lecture, as architect, it's to take the time to make things right. So it took us over a year to restore that facade, but it was absolutely worth it because we thought we, you know, we owe this to this building, right? So never fake, never pastiche, never copy, always go back to the original. I think that's a bit our, that's what drives us to create this. Yeah, and to, as I said, to prepare these properties for the next generation. Belmont has been collaborating with several sister LVMH mayzones, especially in the beauty sector, tells hosting Dior and Garelo, branded wellness spots. Do you work with their brand teams on design and integration of these experiences? Yes, we do, yes, yes, we will, we are working currently on a beautiful project in Villa San Miquel, one of our projects for this year, one of our big openings for this year, where we will open the first Gialan spa. So it's a very smooth and I would say, efficient collaboration that we have with the technical and architectural teams. Of course, it's the company's weeks, change, best practices, and it is a very smooth process at the end. And the results are also amazing because it's like, you know, it's Gialan for Belmont, so you see there is this beautiful architecture of this monaster, and then they adapt also to, with their architecture, with their interior design to the architecture of the place. And the results are always stunning to say. They are more to come this year. There's a geospars well in Chippewaani and another one in Copacabana Palace later this year. So let's look forward, let's tell a scope over the next year. So what does the Belmont slow luxury road map look like? You know, what major hotel projects, re-opening or redesigns that you are particularly excited about? Yes, there's a lot to come. It's a big and very exciting year for us. So I mentioned earlier, Villa Zamikale, so that's our big opening for this spring. It is, we have decided that time to close the property for one year and a half almost, and to fully renovate and restore that building. It is, I think one of the most beautiful buildings you can imagine. It is a monastery from the 15th century. And then it has this Renaissance facade, which is actually standing when you see it. And you walk into the lobby, there's a chapel in the lobby, which is like, what? (laughs) So we took our time to restore all the interior paintings, the chapel, we found another chapel walking up a hill. There's a mini chapel in the woods, which we are restoring right now. And you know, when you walk on projects like this, it's about how far should we go with interior design, right? What's the level of decoration that we should add on a building like this? It has thick walls, it has beautiful floors. This very red, cocteau floors that you found in the Tuscany, beautiful paintings as well, as I said before, like in the corridors. So our take on this was, let's enhance what's there. Let's just refresh it in a sense, give it a fresh, like a layer of freshness. So we worked to the local architects from Florence, the young local architect, Bougie Fragolla. And we added this little touches of greens and reds. And without overwhelming it with our interior design, the hero is the building, the views, the gardens. It has an amazing Renaissance garden, Italian Renaissance garden up into the woods behind the hotel. So it was almost little touches here and there so that the whole property gets this very fresh look. But you still feel the monastery when you come in, right? I think it's opening end of April. So everybody will have the chance to discover it, but it's an absolute amazing project. And for us in architects, we had an amazing time doing it. We have more over-- we have another phase in the Chpriani hotel that will deliver a beautiful restaurant in collaboration with Peter Marino. We have the Grand Hotel Timeo in Sicily coming up and then absolutely exciting another train project, which we did with Baseloman and Catherine Martin. A carriage, a dining car, which is, I think, one of the most exciting projects we ever done. Is it a very bad Lermenet? It is super bad Lermenet. It is-- no, it is-- I mean, it is so disruptive that you can-- I mean, it pushed all our engineers into the next level. I mean, you will see it. But it is in the detailing in the color schemes, in the story that's behind-- in the scenario, this just-- I would say the next level of interior design for a trade. And while joking, I said the other time, only Belmont can do it. I mean, this kind of project, only we can do these things. And the collaboration with Baseloman is absolutely amazing with the team. I was going to say, do you ever get involved in the scouting process where, even before the property is purchased, will you see if it's even worth investing in? Oh, yes, it's absolutely. It's a super important-- obviously, we have booked-- we have big teams. It's not only the architecture of the queue, but we absolutely-- and this is a very long and thorough discussion that we're having with the whole leadership team about, is it a Belmont property? Because not every historical building could be a Belmont property. So we are very much interested in the history and the story of the building as well. So it's-- Yeah, so you want to mention another property, too, I think. Sorry, yes. And finishing the year with Copacabana, Palazzo Eilman, that will come in November for renovation of the pooling with an amazing pool bar. And we'll have a new renovated restaurant. And we will renovate also the amazing and historic iconic pool of Copacabana. So all that comes by end of the year. So yes, you see it is. It is very busy. Very exciting. On's my final question is the luxury item question, which I ask all my guests. So if you were stranded on a deserted island, and you could only have one single luxury item with you, what would that luxury item be? It can't be any form of air or water transportation to get you off that island or anything that requires mobile service so you can call somebody on your team to get you off that island. You're just on this lonely island all by yourself, nobody around. But you do have one single luxury item with you, what would that be? [LAUGHTER] Wow. It's more difficult than designing a basalurmin. That's a difficult question. Wow. Because I mean, yes, I think of something, which comes to my mind, is like I just came back from Peru, from quite a long trip in Peru. And I discovered this amazing Vikunya Kashmir, which are, I think, the most amazing material I've ever touched and I had on my skin. And I think this is kind of something that I would probably take with me. Because it keeps you warm at night, and it is this kind of shelter during the day. And yeah, probably something like this, something softer nights. Ahn's Gary, but senior vice president, design, and construction at Belmont, thank you so much for joining me on the luxury item. Thank you, Scott. That's it for this episode of the Luxury Item Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. If you found this useful and entertaining, I would be really grateful if you can share it with a friend or colleague. I would love it if you subscribe so you never miss an episode. And while you're there, be sure to rate and review us on Apple podcasts. It really helps other listeners find us. The Luxury Item Podcast is a production of silver tone consulting. I'm your host, Scott Kerr, until next time. [MUSIC PLAYING]