Global Hyatt Corporation, a US-based premier hotel chain operator, has announced an expansion initiative involving the erection of 20 new hotel properties in the next five years.
It also signed a 24:76 joint venture agreement with Delhi-based real estate company Emaar MGF for building six hotels under the upper mid-segment brand Hyatt Place. Both companies will invest $200 million (Rs 10 billion) into the project.
Spread over the next four years, Hyatt will target not only the metropolis in India but also penetrate Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Additionally, full service hotels currently operational as the Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt brands are in advanced stages of development.
Steve Haggerty, global head of real estate and development, Global Hyatt Corporation, said, "This has been an exciting period for Hyatt in the Indian market, marking exponential growth and the launch of a new brand. During the past year, we have completed more hotel transactions in India than at any other time in our 25 year history."
The joint venture company of Emaar and Hyatt will build hotels in Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mysore, Lucknow, Indore and Mangalore with a total room capacity of 950. The first of the Hyatt Place hotels will be launched by 2011.
The remaining 14 hotels will come up in cities like Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Goa, Pune, Navi Mumbai, Vizag and Ahmedabad under the Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency brand names. The new properties will recruit staff in excess of 7,000.
Hyatt currently runs four hotels and one resort in India in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Goa.
