The missing ‘Fortune’ above the Select Loudon sign on the hotel’s front facade tells of its closure on Monday. Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha

Fortune Select Loudon is set to make way for jewellery and designerwear showrooms after the “business hotel” on Loudon Street, off Park Street, downed its shutters on July 31.

Managed by Fortune Park Hotels Ltd, a subsidiary of ITC Ltd, the hotel was the property of Embee Resources Pvt Ltd, headed by Ranveer Singh, the son-in-law of industrialist Bipin Vohra.

“It was doing extremely well. We were having almost 100 per cent occupancy. It’s purely a business decision to close it because we realised the property could be put to better use,” Singh told Metro.

“Expect a commercial space with jewellery and designerwear showrooms and much more,” said Singh, who took over the property from Vohra in 2011. “We are also toying with the idea of setting up a restaurant there.”

Furniture and other moveable items from the Loudon Street address are being shifted to Bhubaneswar where the “company has invested in another hotel”.

Vohra explained the limitations of the property to do business in the mid-market to upscale hospitality segment. “The hotel was doing well but had very few rooms (68). You need more than 100 rooms to get the business dynamics going,” said the director of Rutt Deen Pvt Ltd, a company that ran Hotel Rutt Deen at the same location before the management contract with ITC Fortune gave birth to Select Loudon in October 2010.

Singh said most of the 100-odd employees have been accommodated at other ITC properties such as the Fortune Park Panchwati near Santragachhi. “The staff belonged to ITC Fortune. We had nothing to do with them.”

Of the 68 rooms, four were suites. The hotel opposite the official residence of the Calcutta police commissioner had a 24-hour coffee shop, Zodiac, and a lounge bar named Nostradamus plus banquet halls, swimming pool, fitness centre, spa and other facilities.