For decades the Rome-based Fendi has been revered for its high quality clothing and accessories.
“After Fendi,” actor Catherine Deneuve once commented, “everything else is banal.”
But as if being one of the world’s leading fashion houses producing boots that can sell for $900 and dresses twice that amount isn’t enough, Fendi has also extended its famous brand to real estate, launching an upscale hotel in Rome.
Now the company, which started in 1925 as small leathers good shop and fur house, has announced that it wants to build luxury residential housing.
Selecting Scottsdale because of the large number of international travelers who visit the southern Arizona city and may be in the market for a year-around residence, Fendi says it will build just over forty units inside the confines of the larger mixed-use Palmeraie development.
Palmeraie, with upper-end restaurant and retail offerings, is a 122-acre site between Scottsdale and Paradise Valley that is expected to cost more than $2 billion to fully develop.
The Fendi Private Residence project will be the first of its kind in the U.S., with the construction of residential units measuring around 3,500 square feet.
Marco Costanzi Architects, also of Rome, is the designer for a project that will see each unit decorated with a variety of textures, colors, and architectural detail.
Costanzi Architects is widely known throughout Italy for its upscale retail, office, and showroom space work.
Work on the Fendi residential project is expected to begin later this year, with a general completion date of sometime in 2020.
By Garry Boulard
