With the real estate market picking up as the slowdown abates, Ambuja Realty is looking at investing upwards of Rs 1,000 crore over the next few years across a range of commercial and residential properties.
The company plans to spend about Rs 100 crore on three business parks, Rs 250 crore on a commercial and residential complex in Siliguri apart from Rs 300 crore, Rs 150 crore and Rs 70 crore on projects in Patna, Raipur and Haldia, respectively. In particular, the company is bullish about its projects at Rajarhat-New Town where it will undertake the construction of the second phase of its business park — Ecospace.
It opened the first phase of Ecospace in September 2009 and, so far, has been able to lease out or sell about 85 per cent of the property to firms such as Bajaj Allianz, HDFC Bank, Voith, Thyssenkrupp, Indus Towers and Bayer CorpScience. “Demand has been picking up and there is buoyancy in terms of enquiries that are coming in. However, prices can go north,” Ambuja Realty chairman Harshavardhan Neotia said.
Neotia felt that with the state's flagship IT destination — Saltlake Sector V — nearing saturation, Rajarhat-New Town was fast emerging as a prime option thereby, signaling a rise in realty prices in the new enclave. However, it would take some time before prices in both areas reached parity. As for Ambuja’s hospitality venture at New Town, Neotia indicated that the five-star business hotel that it was setting-up along with Swiss major Swissotel would be open early next fiscal.
“The hotel is more or less complete, however, it should be open in a month or two. May should be a good time,” he said. In September last year, Ambuja Realty had tied up with the European hospitality chain to open the first Swissotel property in the country. The 147-key hotel, which is to be located upon the second City Centre mall in Kolkata, was slated to have an investment of Rs 100 crore.