After foraying into tier-2 cities with residential projects, real estate developer Ansal API is now gearing up to enter the hospitality segment in small cities. Over the next two years, the company plans to build three hotels in Panipat, Mohali and Lucknow.
Ansal API had exited the hotel business by selling Marriott Hotel in south Delhi to ITC-Welcom Group in 2004. Last year, it had built a hotel in Ajmer, which is managed by The Country Inn chain. The realty major now plans to replicate the model in other cities as well.
With an estimated investment of about Rs 150 to 200 crore, the hotels will be mid-segment, budget hotel category of 100 rooms each.
Pranav Ansal, vice chairman and managing director of Ansal API, told Business Standard that the company is looking more towards tier-2 cities for hotels as the national capital region (NCR) is already saturated. “NCR is a big market, but there is already an oversupply with so many hotels coming up, so we want to tap tier-2 markets at the moment”, he said.
In retail too, the realty player is building 500,000 sq. ft malls in Lucknow and Ghaziabad.
“If your anchors and cinemas are placed, then you don’t need to worry about. We have already signed up with our anchors, cinema, the food guys, etc. So basically, 40 per cent of the mall space is already signed up,” said Ansal.
He added that the company has already signed up players such as Reliance and Bharti Walmart for these malls.
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With a 9,000-acre land bank, Ansal API is not looking at a big land accumulation exercise. “Few acres keep coming, as neighbouring pockets get licence only if they attach to us”, said Ansal.
The company is building a 3,500-acre township in Lucknow, which is the second biggest project after Sahara’s Amby Valley in terms of area. “Soon, we will be bigger than Amby Valley also,” he said.
Although the company says it will remain largely a north India player, it is not averse to doing international projects.
“We were the first developer who did residential real estate projects overseas in 1990s in Thailand and Russia,” Ansal said.