Billion Dollar Cruise Ship To Be Built In Korea

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Dec 13th 2009 at 10:02AM

It's a risky move but a couple of investors are betting that the world is ready for a new level ocean liner luxury. Recently Samsung Heavy Industries announced a commission to build $1.1 billion super cruiser in Korea called The Utopia. This is the first huge luxury passenger ship being built in Asia. The 1,000-foot, 105,000-ton ship will be completed in 2013 and will offer the Utopia Residences, 200 floating apartments that will range from 1,400 to 6,600 square feet. Residences on the ship will have a starting price of $3.6 million. There will also be a 204-room hotel on board, a fact that makes it different from a similar concept, The World of Residensea ship which is all owned units. The ship plans to travel the world checking out events like the Cannes Film Festival, Rio's Carnival, the Olympics and the Grand Prix auto race in Monaco.

Utopia Residences has opened a showroom on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and is also selling through Douglas Elliman in New York City. The Utopia venture is being financed by a majority of New Mexico investors and the project's lead investors are the Chant and Robb families. David Robb serves as Utopia's chairman while Chris Chant is its president. Frank Carlucci, the former U.S. Secretary of Defense and co-founder of The Carlyle Group, is also involved and the project is backed by Frontier Group, a private equity firm founded by Carlucci. According to an article in New Mexico Business Weekly, David Robb said that he expects that 60 percent of the sales will come from outside the United States.

Tags: korea, samsung, utopia, utopia residences, utopia yacht, UtopiaResidences, UtopiaYacht

Filed under: Yachts & Sailing

Source

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

rick Dec 15th 2009 1:48PM

The Ttanic sunk also ..........................the sea has no favorites

Dwight Dec 15th 2009 3:35PM

The asians are great at building ships ask about all the ferrys that have over turned

Kent Dec 15th 2009 7:58PM

Unique concept or idea for owning a condo on a cruise ship. A mini-community on the high-seas. Wonder what the monthly assessment fee will be? It's about the same length as the Titanic by some 40 yds plus; but more than 4 times its displacement to put Utopia's size in perspective.

Charles Davis Dec 16th 2009 7:46PM

As one who has been on 10 crusies in the past several years, I have always found a strong urge to get off after 7 days. I don't envy those who want to live this way. More power to them. But it does smack of the access in this world we live in today. If you worked for it and earned it $$$$$ go for it.

Cal Dec 15th 2009 11:27PM

Wow, this ship would be pretty much safe from even mega waves. I recall that CV 65 (Enterprise) was only 95 tons and the first nuclear carrier. I was on smaller carriers and weathered huge sea off the coast of China and the North Sea of Japan.

My guess is that this mega ship will not be affected very much by weather (which it can predict and avoid) or rogue waves (also will have warning from satellite and mid-ocean sensors).

Having said that, I sure as heck wouldn't pay $350,000 let alone
$3,500,000 for an "apartment". Hiden costs on at-sea condos are fuel and "homeowners" fees that can run thousands of dollars each month (in addition to the cost of purchase and upkeep on your sea-condo).

Cal Dec 15th 2009 11:31PM

Concur 100%. I was just thinking of much better uses for that kind of money.

My wife and I have done many cruises on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific and am with you on having plenty of fun after about 10 days max.