As Centaur awaits end, Leela takes over Srinagar property

NEW DELHI: One of the two last remaining Centaur Hotels — the brand run by Hotel Corp of India, a subsidiary of erstwhile state-owned Air India — has found a saviour and is now looking at a fresh lease of life in a new avatar. The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts has taken over the Centaur Srinagar, a picturesque property on the banks of Dal Lake, for a period of 60 years. The other Centaur, at Delhi Airport, however, is languishing in its last last remaining six years of existence with more than half of its 378 rooms unusable, awaiting demolition after March 2032.

Anuraag Bhatnagar, Leela’s whole-time director & CEO, told TOI: “We are doing a Rs 300-crore capex on Centaur Srinagar. Extensive work is on at the site, which is the biggest hospitality sector project in Kashmir right now. The property, which used to have 220 keys, will open by the end of next year with 170 bigger rooms as a Leela. We are going to have Leela branded houseboats too, in a first for this place.”

He added: “India is at the beginning of a multi-decadal cycle of luxury. The 7 crore households currently targeted by luxury players are expected to triple by 2030. While demand for luxury hospitality is growing in double digits, there is very little supply addition in the space.”

Leela currently has 13 properties operational and sees this number rising to 23 by March 2030. It is in the midst of Rs 1,300-crore capex at five places — Agra, Ayodhya, Srinagar, Bandhavgarh and Ranthambore — for opening hotels with 1,000 keys in these places. Additionally, Leela is building a greenfield Leela Palace in BKC, Mumbai, which is 50% owned by it & 50% by Brookfield.

“Our investment in the upcoming 250-key BKC property that will open in 2029 is Rs 800 crore. BKC has a serious demand for luxury hotels and hasn’t seen any new property in years. Excavation for that property will start this June,” Bhatnagar said. The group, which is going to have its first property abroad in Dubai, is also working on hotels in places like Sikkim and Jaisalmer.

Unlike most other hospitality chains that are going asset light by going in for management contracts to expand footprint, Brookfield-backed Leela will own 12 of the hotels, which means more than half of the 23 hotels expected by 2030 will be owned by it. Asked the reason for this, Bhatnagar said: “We are generating very high returns and very high profit margins in our owned assets. This way we are creating value for stakeholders.” The group keeps getting “inbound requests for assets”, meaning owners wanting to convert their properties to Leela.

Meanwhile, back to the last remaining Centaur at Delhi Airport. Just before Covid struck, govt had in Dec 2019 allowed the dilapidated 1982-era Centaur Delhi to remain operational till March 31, 2032. The property is to be demolished after that and the area be used for expanding airport facilities. However, with no capex given the short remaining time period for recovering the same, the once iconic property remembered for its glass lifts & central hall is like a terminally ill patient in his last days, waiting for the end.