Brigade to invest Rs 240 crore in hotels in Kochi, GIFT City

MUMBAI: Brigade Hospitality Services, part of Bengaluru-based real estate developer Brigade Group, plans to invest an estimated Rs 240 crore to build two four-star hotels, one near Gandhinagar and the other in Kochi, a top official said. "We would be investing around Rs 60 lakh per key for both the projects which are expected to be operational by December 2017," said Nirupa Shankar, director at Brigade Hospitality, which owns the Sheraton Bangalore Brigade Gateway and Grand Mercure in Bengaluru. The estimated cost is excluding land costs.

Brigade plans to build a 200-room hotel at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), near Gandhinagar, as part of a larger mixed-use development project. In Kochi, it has already signed a lease agreement with Kochi Infopark for a 1-acre land where it will develop a 175-200-room property. The business model followed by Brigade Hospitality is to own properties and enter into management contracts with established hospitality chains such as Starwood, InterContinental and Accor to run the hotels. The company plans to sign up operators for the new hotels by end of the current fiscal year, Shankar said. She said the projects will be funded through a combination of internal accruals and debt.