Alan Faena

Alan Faena
Born
Alan Roger Faena[1]

(1963-11-28) 28 November 1963 (age 60)[1]
Occupation(s)Real estate development, hotels, fine art
SpouseGrace Goldsmith (2023)
Children1

Alan Roger Faena (born 28 November 1963, in Buenos Aires)[1] is an Argentine hotelier and real estate developer[2][3][4][5] who has developed properties in his native Buenos Aires, as well as Miami Beach, Florida.[6][7]

Faena is the founder and President of Faena Group.[8] He is a member of the Tate International Committee and the New Museum Leaders Council.[9] He previously founded Via Vai in 1985, an Argentine fashion label, and worked as a fashion designer.[6]

Early life

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1963[6] to a Syrian immigrant family, his father was a textile manufacturer.[10][11][5][12][13][14][15]

Career

Early career

In 1985, Faena followed in his parents footsteps into the textile industry and founded the fashion label Via Vai at age 19.[5][6][7] He launched the brand with 50 colored shirts he funded himself.[5] The brand expanded to include ready-to-wear collections and a denim line. Faena sold the company in 1996.[5]

Faena Buenos Aires

Faena was a fashion designer for over ten years before beginning a career in real estate development in 2000.[6][8] He partnered with Len Blavatnik, Philippe Starck and Foster + Partners to redevelop abandoned docklands in the Puerto Madero neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina.[8][12] Foster + Partner's residential condominium in re-development was their first project in South America.[5] The Faena Hotel designed by Starck opened in 2004.[7]

The Faena District, which is estimated to be a $200 million development, is the most valuable real estate in Buenos Aires.[6][7] The Faena Arts Center, a converted flour mill located in the center of the district, opened in September 2011 and displays the work of local and international artists.[6][7][16]

In November 2011, German artist Franz Ackermann exhibited the results of his voyages around Buenos Aires with the largest mural of his career in the center.[17] The Cuban duo Los Carpinteros debuted their first solo exhibition in Buenos Aires at the arts center in May 2012.[17]

Faena Miami Beach

Faena expanded his brand to Miami Beach with a $1 billion[18] project to develop a six block waterfront property.[6][19][20] Construction on the Miami Beach Faena District began in 2013.[21]

The project includes the restoration of the 1948 Saxony hotel, and an arts center, Faena Forum, by architect Rem Koolhaas and OMA and residences by Foster + Partners.[2][6][22][23]

Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin are also involved in the project as designers for the interior of the Faena Hotel Miami Beach.[24][25]

The district will be landscaped by Miami-based firm Raymond Jungles.[26] The Faena House, an 18-story residential unit, is the project's first building scheduled for completion.[7][18]

Personal life

Faena was married to Ximena Caminos, the couple having a son together.[4] They separated in 2009.[27] Alan Married Grace Goldsmith on March 4, 2023. Alan Faena crashed Grace Goldsmith’s mother’s birthday party at Saxony Bar in May 2021, where he met Grace.[28]

Paradise Papers

On 5 November 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that Faena was director and CEO of half a dozen offshore companies in Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands. Faena also appears with bank accounts in Luxembourg and the Isle of Man, linked to different hotels and real estate projects in Puerto Madero.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b c Caroline Tell. "Faena Art Introduces Artist In Residence Program". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  2. ^ a b "A Miami Remake". Travel + Leisure. March 2014.
  3. ^ "Miami Dreams". Privat Property. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ a b Ohly Evans, Christina (May 17, 2014). "Alan Faena". Financial Times Travel Unravelled. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ a b c d e f Elisa Lipsky-Karasz (21 May 2013). "Alan Faena's Argentine Residence". Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Spencer, Samuel. "Alan Faena: Argentina's Developer of Cultural Dreams". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ a b c d e f Dittrich, Guy (October 2014). "Meeting Alan Faena". Sleeper Global Hotel Design. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ a b c Eidell, Lynsey. "City Scapers". Worth. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ Christian Viveros-Fauné (12 April 2012). "Argentina's new arts district is built "from scratch"". Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  10. ^ Holly Brubach (Nov 17, 2015). "Flying High". W. His family, Sephardic Jews who emigrated from Syria to Argentina in the 1920s, had a successful textile business.
  11. ^ Wolfe, Alexandra (August 19, 2016). "Alan Faena Takes On Miami Beach". The Wall Street Journal. He was born to a Jewish family in Buenos Aires, the son of the owner of a textile company and a homemaker.
  12. ^ a b "Alan Faena". Lifestyle Magazine Brasil. June 2014. His family, Sephardic Jews who emigrated from Syria to Argentina in the 1920s, had a successful textile business. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. ^ Michael Tannenbaum. "Art and Soul". Archived from the original on 19 December 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  14. ^ Brauner, Susana; Torres, Rayen (2022-10-14). "Orthodoxy and Disaffiliation among Argentine Jews of Syrian Origin in Buenos Aires, from the 60s until today". Hamsa. Journal of Judaic and Islamic Studies (8). doi:10.4000/hamsa.2824. ISSN 2183-2633.
  15. ^ "Alan Faena: The Passionate Inspiration For Dynamic Urban Transformation And Creativity | Dolce Luxury Magazine". dolcemag.com. 2019-10-11. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
  16. ^ Ana Lisa (14 February 2012). "Buenos Aires' Faena Arts Center Opens in a Renovated Mill With a Colorful Interactive Installation". Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  17. ^ a b "Underground art goes upscale in Buenos Aires". Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  18. ^ a b Katya Kazakina (12 September 2013). "Blankfein Said to Buy Into $1 Billion Miami Condo Project". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  19. ^ Agustino Fontevecchia (12 April 2012). "Faena, the developer behind the $550m revival of Miami's Saxony Hotel". Forbes. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  20. ^ Jackie Goldstein (5 December 2012). "Forbes Tries to Figure Out Alan Faena's Saxony Hotel". Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  21. ^ Agustino Fontevecchia (4 December 2012). "Alan Faena, The Developer Behind The $550M Revival Of Miami's Saxony Hotel". Forbes. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  22. ^ Ted Loos, "In Miami Beach, the Faena Forum is to Open in December", New York Times, retrieved 19 November 2017
  23. ^ Sean McCaughan (6 June 2012). "Koolhaas and Foster Mean Starchitect-O-Mania At the Saxony". Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  24. ^ Chris Rovzar (4 December 2013). "Exclusive: Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin to Design Interiors, Uniforms for Saxony Hotel in Miami Beach". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  25. ^ Nate Freeman (24 February 2014). "Baz Luhrmann's Next Project: Miami's Faena Saxony Hotel". Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  26. ^ Sean McCaughan (7 January 2013). "Faena Releases Five Short Videos On Designing Faena House". Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  27. ^ "Miami hotel guru Alan Faena just quietly split with his wife. What happened?". Miami Herald. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
  28. ^ Elise Taylor (2023-03-23). "Inside Alan Faena and Grace Goldsmith's Theatrical Four-Day Wedding in Buenos Aires". Vogue. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
  29. ^ "Alan Faena, otro argentino en Paradise Papers". Perfil. 7 November 2017. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.