A flat in the world’s tallest residential tower can buy you a lifestyle
If the idea of summoning up a private jewellery showing, securing front-row seats at Milan Fashion Week, having an exclusive adventure at the North Pole, or driving a Bentley in Siberia interests you — that is now possible in Mumbai.
Quintessentially, a private members’ club and a leading luxury concierge service for clients like
Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, P Diddy and others from the global A-list, is setting up shop in Mumbai. For the Lodha Group’s World One, billed as the tallest residential tower in the world, due in the next three years, Quintessentially will provide the 600-odd residents of the tower with on-demand luxury services.
That includes dinner reservations at Michelin-starred restaurants around the world, yacht charters, private island hires, meetings with celebrities... “Every city in the world has a bunch of wealthy people who want to indulge in a bunch of things,” says Paul Drummond, co-founder and group commercial director, Quintessentially. “So, basically, accessing the inaccessible and really glamming it up is what we do for our clients.”
Members can also access the brand’s bespoke car service Quintessentially Driven, Quintessentially Publishing, which produces coffee-table books, and global property search company Quintessentially Estates.
Drummond says the member profile includes CEOs, entrepreneurs, bankers, socialites, sports stars, celebrities and expats. Each is interviewed in person before membership is extended. Lakshmi Mittal, Madonna,
Paris Hilton and J K Rowling are among the 86,000 Quintessentially subscribers across the globe.
“Annual fees are £1,000-24,000, depending on the services opted and number of people in a family,” Drummond says. The company has already begun servicing a handful of Indian high net worth individuals, he says, and is confident of a growing member network.
Recently Abhisheck Lodha, MD of the Lodha Group and promoter of Mumbai’s World One tower, had to fly to Sydney on work. Quintessentially’s staff helped with last-minute flight tickets on the specific airline that Lodha wished to fly with. “During our routine surveys,” says Lodha, the pleased customer, “we realised that people — affluent or not — demanded value for money. So, while a private elevator did not really cut ice with our buyers, a concierge service that would assist them in procuring whatever they demanded from any foreign land or local market made sense.”
Last year, Quintessentially rolled out an aggressive new international expansion plan. India was at the top of its list. “We realised that to be able to service better, we needed to have a base in all the top cities to serve our well-heeled members,” says Mishti Bose, Quintessentially’s India CEO. “So we set up offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and employed 15 people.” Bose confirms that they have tied up with all the leading hospitality majors in India, as well as luxury retailers.
Although the nature of the service varies, Drummond says that “Usually, hotels or luxury brands who know us make way for our members’ demands. Companies realise that we deal with the HNIs or super-rich only.”
