After a successful acquisition feat in a massive Rs 870 crore (97 million British pounds) deal, Pune based real estate developer ABIL Group has expressed plans to transform the Central London’s property into a world-class luxury hotel. “We intend to build a world-class luxury hotel of about 200 plus rooms and would soon begin the discussions with leading hotel management companies for the brand tie-up,” said Amit Bhosale, Managing Director, ABIL. “We hope to start the construction of the new hotel at this place by mid next year,” Bhosale said in a statement.
The property, located at a landmark location at the Trafalgar Square, was previously owned by the BlackRock UK Property Fund. It has a development potential of 1.5 lakh square feet, a statement from the company said.
The proposed luxury hotel, expected to have over 200 rooms, will be the first overseas business of the ABIL Group. “Good opportunities for the hospitality sector and our comfort with the city of London made us choose it over any other city in the world for our first overseas project,” said Bhosale, who leads the hospitality business of ABIL.
The group already owns four luxury hotels in India — St Regis Mumbai, W Goa, Westin Pune and Le Meridian Nagpur — which collectively have close to 1,000 hotel rooms. Founded in 1979, the ABIL Group has been involved in the construction of several mainframe infrastructure projects in the country including highways, bridges, tunnels, canals and dams.
Before the acquisition by ABIL, the 5 Strand Trafalgar Square site — which offers a large number of repositioning and redevelopment options — was let to the Westminster Council. The freehold property already has a planning consent for 1.52 lakh square ft gross internal area (GIA) of office, residential and retail developments.
