Fortune - 04.2020

(Wang) #1
102 FORTUNE APRIL 2020

explains Biousse. On top
of that, he realized he
had already identified the
ideal client for the kinds of
hotels he envisioned creat-
ing—the same people who
loved the mid-range luxury
brands he previously had
built and grown. The only
difference in 2019, he says,

is what luxury entails. “The
luxury of tomorrow isn’t
money or recognition—it’s
meaning and purpose. And
that’s especially true in
travel. It’s tied to conserv-
ing local heritage, agricul-
ture, and permaculture.
It’s putting local first.”
In the past year, Biousse

FONTENILLE
MENORCA:
TORRE VELLA

Two historic fincas
on the Balearic
island of Minorca
were converted into
boutique hotels and
working farmland.

be the couple’s new family
home, a deliberate move
toward a slower routine.
Foucher, the seventh
generation in a family of
farmers, wanted to recon-
nect with his agricul-
tural heritage. The restless
Biousse, who had moved
23 times in 20 years, was
eager to lay down roots for
the first time. But the scale
of the project outgrew their
needs. “[32,000 square
feet] of space for two peo-
ple and a dog was simply
too large. We realized to
restore the structure’s gran-
deur, we needed to make it
a commercial project, and
making it a hotel was the
most natural format.”
The duo invested more
than $15 million into the
refurbishment of the estate
and opened it in 2016 as
Domaine de Fontenille,
a boutique hotel com-
plete with vines, produce
gardens, a state-of-the-art
wine cellar, and a one-
Michelin-star restaurant.
The move proved to be a
worthy expenditure of time
and money: Fontenille
quickly became a popular
getaway for Parisians,
in-the-know travelers, and
high-profile personalities
including singer Vanessa
Paradis and Manuel Valls,
a former French Prime
Minister.
Biousse and Foucher’s
future as hoteliers was as
much about transforming
their lives as it was about
capitalizing on a business
opportunity. “When I was
on the road, I was sleeping
in different hotels around
the world that were
beautiful but without any
real character or vision,”

HOS.W.0420.XMIT.indd 102 FINAL 3/6/2020 6:30:49 PM

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