Royal Palms lines up Rs 3000 cr expansion plan

Mumbai-based Nensey family-promoted Royal Palms Estates is planning to set up six more hotels and an international convention centre with a capital outlay of Rs 3,000 crore. Out of six, four star-category hotels will be in Mumbai while remaining two will be in Hyderabad and Kolkata.

Royal Palms is currently operating the Rs 150 crore five-star hotel Royal Palm Park Plaza in association with global hospitality major Carlson Group in Mumbai.

According to sources, Royal Palms is in talks with international brands like Anando, Starwoods (Sheraton) and Banyan Tree for strategic marketing and co-branding tie-ups for these upcoming hotels.

"We are in the process of constructing a luxurious Villa Hotel with 113 rooms with exclusive swimming pools at a cost of Rs 65 crore. This will be ready by January 2007," said Royal Palms joint managing director Dilawar Nensey.

He said Ville Hotel will be followed by a 424-room seven-star palace-model hotel at an estimated cost of Rs 250 crore. This will be operational by November next year.

"Apart from this, we are also planning to construct a four-star hotel with 283 rooms and another three-star hotel with 400 rooms. By early 2009, the existing Royal Palms Park Plaza and along with four new hotels, we will create 1,600 rooms capacity in Mumbai," he said.

The company has also finalised its plans to construct 4,500 seater international convention centre with a cost of Rs 50 crore. The proposed five-star hotels, developed at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore, will also have international convention centres.

Nensey said: "While most hotels have a pay back period of about 7-8 years, due to our expertise in the construction sector we are able to build hotels at about 30 per cent lower cost thereby enabling us to recover our investments in about five years."

He said Royal Palms Park Plaza posted a net profit of 12 crore last year. "For funding our projects, we are leveraging from our real estate sales and if needed we may go for borrowings from the market," Nensey added.