Radisson to add new 162-room hotel in Chennai

CHENNAI: Radisson Hotels is on an expansion drive in Chennai with a new 162-room hotel project, even as it plans to raise its inventory in its existing hotel. The new project, estimated to cost around Rs 150 crore, is perceived as one of the biggest deals to be inked in the last 12 months.

Radisson forayed into the Chennai market with a 100-room hotel near the airport. According to an industry tracker, Radisson plans to add another 30 rooms to its existing inventory here. It has acquired land adjacent to the current complex and has begun construction. This expanded property would be ready before March 2010.

The airport road hotel was started as a joint venture between NKK Hotels and Macnur Hospitality India (in which the MA Chidambaram group had majority shareholding). Later, this was sold to the GRT Group, which is still managing the property.

Radisson���s second hospitality venture in the city, coming up over 1.6 acres in the upmarket Commander-in-Chief Road in Egmore, is with the city-based VVT Hotels, run by Vikram Aggarwal, persons in the know told ET.
The latest from the Radisson stable would join a series of other hospitality ventures which are in various stages of construction ��� ITC, Raintree on Mount Road (Ceebros), Empee-Hilton, JW Mariott, Leela Kempinski, Grand Chola, Grand Hyatt and GRT. The flurry of activity in the hotel segment would boost five-star room inventory by 2,500 units in Chennai.

Most of the new luxe projects in the metro are located in the central business district ��� Taj and Raintree on Mount Road and Empee-Hilton and ITC in Guindy. Incidentally, US-based international hospitality chain Carlson Hotels Worldwide���s Country Inns & Suites too marked its entry into Chennai last month with a 96-room hotel in Egmore.

The upcoming hotel project of Radisson is scheduled to be ready for occupation by December 2010, in time to take on competition from other players. Majority of these projects would get operational in the 2010-2011 fiscal. Interestingly, all the chains had embarked on expansion plans much before the slowdown set in. Radisson is one of the few to have firmed up its second venture in the last few months.

For the Rs 45-crore VVT, which already operates the 129-room Fortune hotel on Old Mahabalipuram Road, also this is the second hospitality project in the city. It has plans to enter the Mumbai market soon, another person told ET on condition of anonymity. According to a person familiar with the development, VVT had signed the pact with Radisson, a few months ago. The new hotel would have two coffee shops, two speciality restaurants and a large banquet hall.