Sweta Estates, a premier real estate company, has ambitious plans to pump in Rs 850 crore in real estate projects by this year-end. The company plans to launch two new projects by this year-end – one residential and the other an IT SEZ. Their ultra-luxury Belair apartments at Sector 48 in Gurgaon will be launched by September-end. This new development is strategically located at the heart of the Group’s Central Park-II project and will be the residential trademark of it. The overall construction cost of Belair is expected to be to the tune of Rs 600 crore. There will be two signature towers with apartment sizes varying from 1,500 square feet to 8,000 square feet, while the prices per square feet will be a whopping Rs 12,000. It will be funded mainly through internal accruals and PE funding. UK-based Ashmore Associates have 9 per cent equity in the company.
Speaking to ‘Property Pulse’, Vineet Nanda, vice president (business development), says: “Central Park – II is our second foray into luxury residential development. Sprawling over 50 acres, this self-contained township is being built in phases. Now in the 2nd phase, we will be launching the Belair apartments with all modern amenities one can ask for. These ‘super-luxury’ twin towers are strategically located in the centre of Central Park-II. We hope to generate revenue of almost Rs 1,000 crore from this project. What is remarkable about us is the fact that we are a zero-debt company.”
Further, the company is also looking to launch their first IT SEZ project at Noida. Sprawling over 25 acres, this IT SEZ will be built in two phases with the first phase being launched this year-end. The project will include infrastructure for IT/ITes operations, a residential area including serviced apartments, a commercial area with a shopping mall and an institutional area with a convention hall, and several other public facilities associated with developments of this scale. It will be the first-of-its-kind in the entire NCR region.
Elaborating on this, Neeraj Dhawan, CFO of Sweta Estates adds: “The overall cost of the project is not less than Rs 1,000 crore. But we will be developing it in two phases — 40 per cent in the first phase and 60 per cent in the 2nd phase. The overall development at the SEZ is close to about 5 million sq ft out of which 1.5 million sq ft will be developed in the first phase. The cost of construction of the first phase is expected to be Rs 250 crore and the project should be launched by this year-end.”
Meanwhile, the Group’s first 5-star hotel under the name Pullman Central Park Hotel will be operational by this December. This will mark their foray into the hospitality sector. Located at Delhi-Gurgaon road, the hotel will also provide rooms for the physically challenged besides having 180 double rooms, 118 twin rooms and eight suites. Other facilities and leisure-oriented activities associated with five-star hotels will form an integral part of the hospitality offered at this hotel.
“Our presence in the hospitality sector will be marked by the opening of our first 5-Star Hotel later in December. For the hotel projects we have partnered with Accor, a European hospitality leader that operates in nearly 100 countries, with a total of 4,000 hotels worldwide. This hotel will operate under Accor’s brand Pullman which will offer truly distinctive, world class hospitality,” states Nanda.
Sweta Estates intends to emerge as a leading realty player in India with future projects across various verticals. The Group has already completed development of 2 million sq ft of space till date and has another 6 million sq ft under construction. This development spans across sectors like hospitality, commercial, SEZ and upscale residential.
“Apart from NCR region, we also have a considerable land bank in Goa — 76 acres which we hope to develop next year. Though our main focus is on the NCR region but we are also looking to identify properties at Ludhiana in Punjab, property near Chandigarh and we are also looking at properties in Indore,” adds Vineet Nanda.
The company’s collection from project sales and advance bookings has been about Rs 110 crore in the last fiscal (2009-2010), while they expect to raise this up to about Rs 500 crore this fiscal (2010-2011).
