The Leela Palace Chennai
History
The land for the hotel was acquired from industrialist M. A. M. Ramaswamy for about ₹ 700 million.
In September 2014, ESPA, a 16,000-square feet spa, was opened at the hotel.
In September 2017, the hotel was purchased from the Leela Group by the American private equity fund Marigold Capital for ₹ 7,000 million.
The hotel
Located on 6.25 acres near Adyar Creek facing the Bay of Bengal, the 16-story hotel with a built-up area of 831,000 sq ft has 326 rooms, including 295 deluxe or premiere room and 31 suites. The colonial-style building features 2,601 sq m of banquet and meeting facilities, including a 1,390 sq m ballroom and a traditional landscaped courtyard, restaurants and bars, a 1,394 sq m health club/spa and a 1,060 sq m boutique retail plaza. There are a total of 6 meeting rooms in the hotel. The project will use LED lights for all its external lighting and all major internal areas and will also collect water on a major scale from rain water harvesting.
The 12-room ESPA spa was designed by Jeffrey Wilkes of DesignWilkes and Madhu Nair of The Leela Hotel. It covers an area of 16,000 sq. ft. The hotel has its own ensemble of musicians playing Carnatic music.
Software park
The hotel also has a 250,000 sq ft commercial property, the Leela Business Park, located next to the hotel property. However, the group is planning to sell the commercial property to raise funds for its hotel venture. Talks were on with the Reliance Industries, which was planning to buy the IT Park for ₹ 1,720 million. Reliance Industries signed the deal in late February for the said amount.
