Hotel majors vie for space in GMR's Delhi project

Mumbai: Leading premium and budget hotel companies such as ITC, EIH, Leela Ventures, Royal Orchid, Lemon Tree, and developer DB Realty are in the race for hotel projects in GMR Infrastructure-controlled Delhi International Airport’s (DIAL) hospitality district.
A few months ago, GMR Infra had invited bids for building hotels at its proposed 45-acre hospitality district near the upcoming Delhi airport.
GMR Infra is expected to earn close to Rs 3,000 crore from successful bidders who are supposed to pay a security deposit of three times the average annual lease rental to the Hyderabad-based firm. The entire infrastructure will be provided by DIAL. GMR Infra is likely to announce the successful bidders in a fortnight.
“The response is quite strong,” GMR group CFO A Subba Rao told ET, without divulging the identity of the bidders. However, many bidders confirmed to ET that they have put in their bids. Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM) is GMR Infra’s advisor for the hotel projects.
Currently, hospitality firms across segments are going slow on new projects, especially in tier-2 cities like Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore, as oversupply has hit their business prospects. However, Delhi is expected to witness huge demand with Commonwealth games coming up next year.
16/03/09 Rajesh Unnikrishnan & Lijee Philip/Economic Times

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Categories: Airports Mar 2009