Real estate majors chant the ‘hotel precinct’ mantra

Position inventory across different price points in proximity

Bhisham Mansukhani - Mumbai

Real estate majors, who aren't traditional hoteliers, have brought home the global trend of hotel precincts wherein they develop inventories across various price points in a single complex.

Nirmal Lifestyle was the first to announce an unprecedented cluster of five hotels (1,080 rooms) in the mid and premium segment with Accor. Simultaneous developments saw Unity Infraprojects and BSEL’s plans to jointly develop a total of 400 rooms and commercial space in the run up to the Youth Commonwealth Games to be held in the city in October 2008, as well as HCC tie-up with Accor to develop two hotels at its Lavasa Township located between Mumbai and Pune. All three projects have been announced by companies not traditionally involved in hospitality. They will not be involved in the daily management of the properties. Accor may emerge as the beneficiary in all three cases as it is one of the potential front-runners in the race to bag the contract to help design and manage the latest Pune project as well.

Dharmendra Raichura, MD of BSEL, told Express Hospitality that the company will most likely consider selling its stake in the hotel project in Pune once it becomes operational. He adds, "We are currently talking to 10 hotel companies. The prospect for the hotel precinct is extremely good since it's just an hour's drive from the proposed Navi Mumbai airport." The BSEL-Unity Infraprojects venture is valued at Rs 156 crore and will be developed at Shivchhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune by October 2008. Yogen Lal, COO of Unity Infraprojects, adds, "Spreading the 400-room inventory across at least three price points is critical to the sustenance of the project, considering the strategic location. It is located on the Bangalore-Pune highway in proximity to Hingewadi, and will therefore attract business travellers, transit traffic and city dwellers."

Real estate developer Nirmal Lifestyle and Accor, apart from their record 1,080-room hotel precinct in Mulund, Mumbai, are mulling the possibility of up to 10 such hotel and convention complexes. Their agreement covers a total of 3,000 rooms to be developed over the next five years, spread across 10 ‘destination malls’ (hotel-cum convention centre). Nirmal Lifestyles Group CMD, Dharmesh Jain, says, "The profile of people involved in the business loop is varied, therefore the multiple price points. We believe this template may become a standard for India's massive urban development vision. The potential cities for destination malls include Pune, Bangalore, Nashik and Ahmedabad and the hotels will likely be branded across Sofitel, Novitel and Mercure."