MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA-Fairmont Raffles Hotels International has opened its $400 million new hotel in the city, the Raffles Mecca Palace, within steps of the Holy Mosque. The 213-suite hotel will serve the eight million annual Muslim visitors to the city, half of which come on pilgrimage to this city.

The suites are adorned in luxury, with four restaurants, male-female segregated workout facilities and a personal butler for each room. The hotel is on floor 11-26 of the Abraj Al Bait Complex, a $3 billion, 15.6-million-square-foot mixed-use residential-retail complex being developed by the Saudi Binladin Co. The complex will also eventually include the Mecca Clock Tower Fairmont Hotel, which will add more than 800 more rooms and suites.

This recently-opened hotel is the second in the Middle East by the company, which is majority owned by Kingdom Holding Co., as the Fairmont Dubai opened in 2007. The firm plans to open more in the Gulf region, including the Fairmont Palm Island Dubai, a Fairmont hotel at the Marina City Development in Abu Dhabi and the Fairmont Kingdom of Sheba in Dubai.  

that employees, residents and their families and others in the senior living industry were often confused about how our ownership, management and development entities were connected,” said Douglas Schiffer, president of the Allegro firm. “Now our name makes it more apparent that we are one company, better describes what we do, and puts our corporate identity in line with that of our individual Allegro properties, which are recognized and well-respected within the senior living industry.”