The Development Manual
From site to opening: gates, the area programme and benchmarks by tier, with calculators.
Read →REDEVELOPING DELHI'S MOST ICONIC LUXURY HOTEL
EXC
ELS
IOR
The Claridges — Redevelopment Concept & Proposal
A ₹1,000 crore vision for the next iconic luxury hotel of New Delhi — concept, approvals strategy, asset programming and a comprehensive business model, authored end to end.
AUTHORED BY VIKRAMADITYA SINGH · CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CLARIDGES HOTELS & RESORTS
436,000
SQUARE FEET PROGRAMMED — EVERY ONE PLACED BY THE BUSINESS MODEL
402
KEYS — 340 LUXURY ROOMS AT 550 SQ FT, 62 SUITES INCLUDING 2 PRESIDENTIAL
40,000
SQ FT OF EVENTS — THE REGION'S LARGEST PILLARLESS BALLROOM, OPENING TO ITS OWN GARDENS
1,000
JOBS GENERATED · MAKE IN INDIA · CARBON-NEGATIVE, Z-SECURITY DEVELOPMENT
I · THE CASE
Every capital has one sovereign hotel. Delhi's is waiting.
Every great capital keeps one hotel that is a showcase of its society's achievement — where heads of state and captains of industry are hosted comprehensively. New Delhi has great hotels; it has none that is iconic on that global scale. The Claridges holds the finest location in the heart of the city, minutes from Parliament and the government quarter, on one of its most desired addresses.
The proposal: a world-class luxury hotel, banquet and convention, retail, restaurant and wellness hub — a magnificent addition to the Central Vista vision, aesthetically and commercially, built to host the state visits the capital increasingly commands. Operating since 1955, The Claridges is the natural candidate to become the pride of the country.
II · THE APPROVALS PATH
The regulatory thesis, argued on the record.
Redevelopment in the Lutyens Bungalow Zone is won on paper before it is won on site. The proposal assembles the entitlement case document by document.
1955
The hotel opens as The Claridges — pre-1962, before the Master Plan of Delhi; acknowledged as a hotel, not a residence, paying NDMC property tax and electricity at commercial rates.
2015
Plan sanctioned by L&DO and NDMC at 1.5 FSI — while MPD 2021 grants hotels outside the LBZ 3.75, and the Urban Development Ministry holds for the use-zone FAR of 2.5. The gap is the case.
2018
DDA, as directed by MOHUA, confirms The Claridges is to be reflected as a hotel in the Zone D zonal development plan — the entitlement's documentary anchor.
THE ASK
Parity at 3.75 FSI through the PMO's discretionary authority over the LBZ — with precedent in Le Meridien and The Lalit, and purpose in the Central Vista Redevelopment Project: a green, sustainable, technology-forward landmark that lets New Delhi host more world-class summits.
III · THE PROGRAMME
436,000 square feet, placed by the model.
Total area programming supported by a comprehensive business model — each use earning its share of the plate before it earned a floor. Keys hold two-thirds; events, retail, wellness and dining make the hotel a destination on days no one checks in.
USE
UNITS
AREA (SQ FT)
SHARE
Rooms & suites — 550 sq ft luxury rooms; Claridges, long-stay & presidential suites
402
292,000
67%
Banquets & conferencing — grand ballroom, auditorium, meeting & board rooms
10
32,000
7%
Commercial — luxury retail arcade & office work-suites
40
70,000
16%
Wellness — the Ayurveda-led Immortality Spa, sports club & gym
—
12,000
3%
F&B — six signature restaurants & bars
6
30,000
7%
Total programmed area
436,000
100%
IV · THE STACK
Fifteen floors, read top to bottom.
Up to fifteen floors subject to height approvals, with three to four basement levels — parking beyond the regulated requirement, and a 10-metre two-lane road around the property for seamless traffic movement. Separate entries for hotel, suites and banquets.
ROOF
Rooftop pool, restaurants & bars, viewing deck — 360° over historic Delhi
11
Penthouse suites, suite floors, apartments
4 – 10
Rooms, suites & apartments — seven guest floors
3
Retail — international luxury and Indian houses, 40,000 sq ft
2
Gym, spa, indoor pool · offices · the Senate Club & business centre
1
Hotel lobby & reception · restaurants & lounges · boardrooms · kitchens
GROUND
The 20,000 sq ft pillarless banquet hall, connected to 20,000 sq ft of gardens — 40,000 sq ft of events with dedicated entry and exit
B1
Admin offices · plant & machinery · receiving & loading dock · parking
B2 – B4
Car parking — beyond the regulated requirement
V · THE STANDARDS
Built for the state visit, and for the century.
SOVEREIGN-GRADE
Z-class security levels and protocols to facilitate heads-of-state visits; sound-proof construction; over 60 world-class suites with presidential product; long-stay suites and studios in one-, two- and three-bedroom formats.
GREEN & CLEAN
A carbon-negative green building with state-of-the-art plant — international best-in-class air quality inside and outside the building, in the heart of the capital.
MAKE IN INDIA
Indian resources, talent and engineering prowess throughout; employment for over a thousand people; a significant contribution to community and treasury — and to Incredible India.
THE ADDRESS, RESOLVED
On Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road — a 40,000 sq ft building plate with lawns, main porch, and separate hotel, suites and banquet entries; today's capacity, safety and traffic problems designed out, not managed around.
VI · THE BUSINESS MODEL
The vision is costed.
A comprehensive business model underwrites the concept — the ₹1,000 crore development case, revenue built on four engines: 402 keys at the top of the market, a 40,000 sq ft events machine with its own entrance, a retail and work-suite annuity of 70,000 sq ft, and destination dining and wellness that earn on days no one checks in.
The full model — area-by-area pro forma, phasing and return case — is available to qualified parties on request. The instrument demonstrates the Excelsior method at development scale: vision-driven concept briefs, total area programming supported by the business model, and an approvals thesis argued on the record.
“When stewardship is honest, the numbers follow.”
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