There’s a new tallest building the world – the Burj Dubai, renamed the Burj Khalifa after the ruler of Abu Dhabi bailed the project out – and the new Dubai skyscraper is 2,717 feet tall, over 1,000 feet taller than the former tallest building in Taipei.  To give you some idea, it’s 50 stories higher than the Sears Tower in Chicago, America’s tallest building, and twice as high as the Empire State Building.

The $1.5 billion Burj Khalifa opened today, with 12,000 invited guests, 160 floors, 1044 luxury apartments, and a hotel.  But the strategy of the week is not the building, but the hotel inside the building, The Armani Hotel Dubai, created by fashion titan Giorgio Armani, the guy who used to sell you suits.  Armani, who’s no spring chicken, decided to hit the scene with a bang, and put his first hotel into the Burj Khalifa.  It  has 160 rooms, a spa, two restaurants, a nightclub, and ten floors of the building.  It’s his first hotel – and already it’s known to every world traveler who might even think about going to the Mideast.

With all the media, Armani succeeded in becoming a world hotel brand in a weekend.  His second hotel will open in Milan later this year.  Fashion, accessories, and now hotels.  What a way to hit the scene!  He probably won’t need it but Good luck, Giorgio.

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