Honolulu Condos: Waikiki Ilikai Properties – New “Edition” Hotel Part 2

Waikiki Ilikai Properties - New "Edition" Hotel Part 2

Ultra-stylish Edition brand will make global debut at former Yacht Harbor Tower next to Ilikai (See Waikiki Ilikai Properties - New "Edition" Hotel Part 1)

You don't usually mentally link Marriott hotels with Ian Schrager or high style. But, the reliable hotel chain is hoping to change that with a new brand of "lifestyle" hotels called EDITION. The first EDITION hotel is set to open on Waikiki Beach this fall, and the brand itself is part of a partnership between Marriott and Schrager-he of Studio 54 and boutique hotel fame, from the Delano in Miami to the Mondrian in Los Angeles. According to the EDITION press release, "The Brand will be about an attitude and the way it makes you feel rather than the way it looks. Sophisticated public spaces, finishes, design, and details will serve the experience, not drive it." Yes, the world is turning upside down. What else does the Waikiki EDITION have in store?

It won't feature the kiddie pools we've all come to expect from the Marriott. Instead, it'll have a restaurant from Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, Surf and Bikini Boot Camps, a ginormous ballroom, and "an intimate Lobby Bar hidden behind a secret passage as if tucked away in a castle." I don't even know what to make of that last part. The press release also mentions "an exclusive Private Sunset Beach with its own lagoon and imported sand." Judging from the hotel's reported location-on the site of one of the towers of the former Ilikai Hotel, which is technically not on Waikiki Beach but on an adjacent inlet-and the fact that all real beaches on Oahu are technically public, the "Private Sunset Beach" might not be so private, but such is life in Waikiki. And, while the Morimoto restaurant sounds interesting, it's worth noting that the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort, a traditional Marriott, not only has hordes of sticky children, it also has one of the best sushi restaurants on Waikiki: Sansei Sushi & Seafood. Shocking but true.

A second EDITION hotel will open in Istanbul later this year, with an ESPA spa (the same spa found at New York's five-star Peninsula Hotel). There are also plans for EDITION properties in trendy locales like Mexico City, Barcelona, and Bangkok. 

For more informatino regarding adjacent condo buildings, Ilikai Apartments and Ilikai Marina, please visit our website at www.HNLCondos.com.