Alan Roger Faena (born 28 November 1963, in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

) is an Argentine hotelier and real estate developer who has developed properties in his native

, as well as

Miami Beach, Florida Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. Faena is the founder and President of Faena Group. He is a member of the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

International Committee and the New Museum Leaders Council. He previously founded Via Vai in 1985, an Argentine fashion label, and worked as a fashion designer.

Early life

Born in

Buenos Aires, Argentina Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

in 1963 to a Syrian immigrant family, his father was a textile manufacturer.

Career

Early career

In 1985, Faena followed in his parents footsteps into the textile industry and founded the fashion label Via Vai at age 19. He launched the brand with 50 colored shirts he funded himself. The brand expanded to include ready-to-wear collections and a denim line. Faena sold the company in 1996.

Faena Buenos Aires

Faena was a fashion designer for over ten years before beginning a career in real estate development in 2000. He partnered with Len Blavatnik, Philippe Starck and

Foster + Partners Foster and Partners (also Foster + Partners) is a British international architecture firm with its headquarters in London, England. It was founded in 1967 by British architect and designer Norman Foster. The firm has been involved in the design ...

to redevelop abandoned docklands in the Puerto Madero neighborhood of

. Foster + Partner's residential condominium in re-development was their first project in South America. The Faena Hotel designed by Starck opened in 2004. The Faena District, which is estimated to be a $200 million development, is the most valuable real estate in Buenos Aires. The

Faena Arts Center Faena Art Center is the cultural center of the Faena District Buenos Aires, a residential and cultural community in the Puerto Madero waterfront in Buenos Aires developed by the Faena Group and opened in September 2011. Alan Faena founded the cent ...

, a converted flour mill located in the center of the district, opened in September 2011 and displays the work of local and international artists. In November 2011, German artist Franz Ackermann exhibited the results of his voyages around

with the largest mural of his career in the center. The Cuban duo Los Carpinteros debuted their first solo exhibition in Buenos Aires at the arts center in May 2012.

Faena Miami Beach

Faena expanded his brand to

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

with a $1 billion project to develop a six block waterfront property. Construction on the Miami Beach Faena District began in 2013. The project includes the restoration of the 1948 Saxony hotel, and an arts center, Faena Forum, by architect

Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theory, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Graduate School of ...

and OMA and residences by Foster + Partners.

Baz Luhrmann Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann (born 17 September 1962) is an Australian film director, producer, writer, and actor whose various projects extend from film and television into opera, theatre, music, and the recording industries. He is regarded by ...

and Catherine Martin are also involved in the project as designers for the interior of the Faena Hotel Miami Beach. The district will be landscaped by Miami-based firm Raymond Jungles. The Faena House, an 18-story residential unit, is the project's first building scheduled for completion.

Personal life

Faena was married to Ximena Caminos, the couple having a son together. They separated in 2009. Alan Married Grace Goldsmith on March 4, 2023. Alan Faena crashed Grace Goldsmith’s mother’s birthday party at Saxony Bar in May 2021, where he met Grace.

Paradise Papers

On 5 November 2017, the

Paradise Papers The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsche Z ...

, a set of confidential

electronic document An electronic document is a document that can be sent in non-physical means, such as telex, email, and the internet. Originally, any computer data were considered as something internal—the final data output was always on paper. However, the ...

s relating to

offshore investment Offshore investment is the keeping of money in a jurisdiction other than one's country of residence. Offshore jurisdictions are used to pay less tax in many countries by large and small-scale investors. Poorly regulated offshore domiciles have ser ...

, revealed that Faena was director and CEO of half a dozen

offshore companies The term "offshore company" or "offshore corporation" is used in at least two distinct and different ways. An offshore company may be a reference to: * a company, Corporate group, group or sometimes a division thereof, which engages in offshorin ...

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory, and the largest by population. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located so ...

and

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

. Faena also appears with bank accounts in

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

and the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

, linked to different hotels and real estate projects in

Puerto Madero Puerto Madero, also known within the urban planning community as the Puerto Madero Waterfront, is a Barrios and Communes of Buenos Aires, ''barrio'' of Buenos Aires in the Buenos Aires Central Business District, Central Business District. Occup ...

References

External links

Faena - Official Website

Faena - Creating Utopias
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faena, Alan Argentine fashion designers Argentine people of Syrian-Jewish descent Argentine people of Syrian descent Syrian businesspeople Businesspeople from Buenos Aires 1963 births Living people People named in the Paradise Papers