Thursday, March 18, 2010

Express Infrastructure in talks with leading hotel chains

17 Mar 2010, 1306 hrs IST, IANS


CHENNAI: South India's integrated commercial-cum-hospitality complex developer Express Infrastructure is in talks with big chains like Hyatt and Shangri-La to manage the hotel property built by it inside the Rs.750 crore Express Avenue Complex here. 

"We are in talks with several global hotel chains like Hyatt, Shangri-La and Planet Hollywood. Our plan is to have a five-star hotel, for which the structure is ready," Chief Financial Officer R.R. Aroon kumar told.

He said the hotel will have between 80 and 120 rooms. "The number of hotel rooms will depend on the operator who runs the hotel," he added.

Express Avenue, the mall-cum-commercial-cum-hotel complex built on over 10 acre area in the heart of the city, will have retail space of around 900,000 sq. ft. and commercial space of around 85,000 sq. ft. housing around 10 big corporates.

"The visitors of these corporates would provide decent customers for the hotel. Further, the shoppers at the mall and the movie-lovers at the eight multiplex theatres would provide good business for the hotel and the restaurants," Aroon kumar said.

He said a star hotel will be a major differentiating factor for Express Avenue.

Meanwhile, Express Avenue's eco-friendly mall is getting ready for its launch this April with anchor tenants like Lifestyle, Big Bazaar and others busy in getting their internal fittings ready.

"The mall and the commercial space is expected to get the Gold rating in terms of energy efficiency," Aroon kumar said.

Nearly 90 percent of the retail space has been licensed out to leading retail brands vending apparel, lifestyle products, toys, electronics, food and others.

Express Avenue is the first mall operator in this part of the region to licence out its retail space and also go in for a mix of minimum guarantee fee/rent-cum-revenue sharing arrangement with its retail tenants.

"Nearly 75 percent of the retail deals are on the basis of revenue sharing while the balance is on pure licence fee/rent basis," he said. 

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