With their first two hotel projects, husband-and-wife design team Bob and Cortney Novogratz created a virtual beach paradise on the Jersey Shore. Now, they’ll be working on one in actual paradise: The stars of Bravo’s 9 by Design told us at last week’s wrap party that their company, Sixx Design, just signed on to design a 48-room boutique hotel in the Mexican resort town of Punta Mita, about 26 miles from Puerto Vallarta. While this will be the couple’s third hotel project to feature their signature ultramodern-meets-eclectic-chic style, joining Bungalow, which opened in August of last year, and Cabana, which is not yet completed, it’s their first outside of the United States. Slated to open on Thanksgiving, 2011, the budget is set to exceed $5 million. “The hotel in Punta Mita is a chance for Sixx Design to do something totally unexpected and different,” Bob Novogratz told us. Expect Bob and Cortney to travel around little Mexican villages with their seven adorable yuppie kids, carefully handpicking each and every piece of furnishing to then be used to fill the hotel. They say they’re hoping to bring a “downtown New York” feel to an area dominated by traditional old-fashioned resorts like the Four Seasons and St. Regis. “Think Frida Kahlo meets the Campana brothers!” Novogratz said.
