Louis Vuitton will open its first luxury hotel in Paris

It’s funny that the oldest bridge in Paris, the one that crosses the Île de la Cité, is actually called the “New Bridge”, a historical monument of France and a Unesco World Heritage Site. That bridge gives its name to the district chosen by Louis Vuitton for its offices, as well as a leather bag emblem of Parisian elegance (the LV Poin 9). The luxury brand’s love for Pont Neuf is such that the district today is the heart of a Louis Vuitton urban redevelopment projecta project that goes from the relaunch of Samaritaine Paris Pont-Neuf, a historic Parisian department store housed in an Art Nouveau building owned by LVMH, to the announcement that it will soon be based here the first Louis Vuitton hotel in the world.

To proclaim it is Michael Burke, president and CEO of the French luxury brandwhich he revealed in an interview with WWD the company’s plans to transform the current offices into an attractive center built around the brand, which will include the largest LV store in the world and, indeed, its first hotel.

What we know about Louis Vuitton’s first hotel

A panoramic hotel, with what Michael Burke called “the most spectacular view in the world”, with a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame de Paris. A view that the managing director knows very well, given that at the moment this is where his office is located, which he will have to give up to make room for this new project. “There are better uses to it than a corporate office,” he explained, recounting that the direction of hospitality is and will increasingly be the future of the brand. “This is what our customers want from us: a 24/7 relationship.”

The first step towards the transformation of the company’s 40,000 square meter headquarters will be taken as early as this week, with the inauguration of an experiential space called LV Dreamwhich will present to the public an exhibition on Louis Vuitton’s collaborations with various artists (from Jeff Koons to Takashi Murakami), accompanied by a gift shop and a café run by Maxime Frédéric, head pastry chef at the Hotel Cheval Blanc (still owned by the LVMH group). From here will start what will be a work in progress that will last at least ten years, and which will lead to the opening of the hotel and many other innovations. “Eventually most of this building will probably be something other than an office,” added Michael Burke. If the whole project is going to take a long time, it will take a little less for the grand opening of the hotel, which Burke hopes to open within five years.