Parting ways

Calcutta, June 18: Carlsons Hotel Worldwide and Ambuja Realty have parted ways.

The Ambujas have dropped the Radisson tag from The Ffort Radisson Resort — its property at Raichak — and renamed it as The Ffort Resort. The company had signed the contract for The Ffort with Carlsons 10 years ago.

“Yes, we have dropped the Radisson tag and the 10-year contract expired on December 2007. We are yet to talk, so the signs are clear,” said Harsh Neotia, chairman of Ambuja Realty Ltd.

Usually such contracts are reviewed after the expiry of the initial contract and terms are revised.

Neotia had earlier said he would be keen to retain the Radisson tag if the terms remained the same. However, any revision would require further deliberations.

He, however, did not see any conflict with the Radisson plan to build a property within the city.

“Usually such contracts have a barring clause of five to 10 kilometres. Ffort is 50 kilometres away so that is not a problem. The profile of both the properties would be different. Ffort is a resort, while the city property could be a luxury hotel,” Neotia said.

On the branding of its upcoming properties, Neotia said, “We are yet to begin talks with other players as there are very strong internal consideration on whether we will do a brand by ourselves.”

On whether EIH Ltd’s Trident will fit the bill, he said it would as Trident was a very respected and one of the most popular hospitality brands in the country.

S.S. Mukherjee, vice-chairman and managing director of EIH Ltd, said they were looking at managing a property under the Trident brand.

“For Calcutta, the second property would be such where we will put in our management expertise under the Trident brand. We are yet to come across any. If they (Ambujas) want a Radisson brand we do not have something in that category.”

EIH runs the Oberoi Grand in Calcutta.

The second Ambuja hotel is set to come up by March 2009 at City Centre II in New Town, Rajarhat.

Ambuja Realty has a host of hospitality projects lined up, including a tea tourism resort at Makaibari and a boutique hotel in north Calcutta.

Other locations where the company is looking for land is at Ghum, which has the highest railway station in the country, and at Gorumara.

Ambuja plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore in hospitality projects in the next five years.