With the opening of his new luxury hotel, Fasano Itaim in São Paulo, things have come full circle for Gero Fasano. The launch comes nearly 20 years to the day after the opening of his first namesake boutique property in the city, located in the nearby neighborhood of Jardins on a street named for his grandfather Vittorio – the restaurateur who emigrated to Brazil from Milan in 1902 and started this culinary empire. 'When we opened the first Fasano Hotel in 2003, I never thought we would do a second hotel, much less ten, and certainly not another here in São Paulo. It happened that way because I have great partners,' said the 61-year-old Fasano.
He refers to partners José Auriemo Neto and Constantino 'Coki' Regis Bittencourt. Auriemo Neto owns JHSF, one of Brazil's top real estate development firms, which took an ownership stake in the company in 2007 and has since made an art of selling luxury condominiums branded together with Fasano hotel projects. 'JHSF has been a great partner, but none of this would have been possible without Coki,' said the patriarch of this restaurant company-cum-five-star hotel brand.
