India: Oakwood Worldwide has disassociated itself with the Oakwood Premier Andheri, which is under construction at Sahar.
The management contract of Oakwood’s sole operational property in Mumbai, Oakwood Premier, at Juhu was discontinued in November 2015. The property has since been rebranded as Z Luxury Residences.
The company has four operational projects in India – two properties in Bangalore and one each in Pune and Hyderabad.
The Oakwood Premier Andheri property, owned by Aristo Realty, promoters of Lloyds Steel Industries, has stalled at shell stage due to lack of funds, and has reportedly recently been sold to an investor from Mozambique.
The project was planned to have 201 serviced apartments with 360 bedrooms.
Abhijeet Umathe, associate director – hospitality and leisure, Knight Frank India, said serviced apartments are yet to take off significantly in the region: “There are certain challenges with this model. It hasn’t caught the fancy of the travellers as the average stay in Mumbai is very short. And for this business to become viable, the property will require guests staying for a minimum of two weeks. As a result, the FSI cost shoots through the roof and it’s not that serviced apartments are able to charge higher rates than hotels. So the asset owner gets same FSI as a hotel and lesser keys. So the realisation per apartment isn’t very attractive either.”</p
