Mayfair Group of hotels, the largest premium hotel chain in eastern India, has acquired the Palm Beach property of the Oberoi Group located at Gopalpur in Orissa at a cost of Rs 10 crore. The Oberoi Palm Beach, a heritage hotel, was the third oldest property of Oberoi Group, after those in Shimla and Kolkata. It was acquired by MS Oberoi in 1942 from an Italian entrepreneur and was in operation since 1947 before being closed down in 2005 due to maintenance problems.

Mayfair group intends to invest another Rs 25 crore to renovate the property before reopening it around March next year. The property is spread over an 11-acre plot. The existing property has 19 rooms and post acquisition, the new owners will ramp up the room inventory to 35. This will be the seventh property of the Mayfair Group which already has five-star properties in locations like Bhubaneswar, Goa, Darjeeling, Puri and Gangtok. Besides, three properties of the hotel major are under construction in Kolkata, Puri and Satapada.

Mayfair Group is coming up with a five-star deluxe hotel in Kolkata. This hotel project will cost the group Rs 60-70 crore, including the land cost. The hotel is coming up on a 1.5-acre plot, about three km from the Kolkata airport. Besides going ahead with its proposed Kolkata project, the group has planned a luxury resort at Satapada, spread over 100 acres. The resort will come up on the scenic sea mouth at Satapada where the Bay of Bengal meets the brackish Chilika lake. For the Satapada resort, the Mayfair Group has already acquired 60 acres and it needs another 30-40 acres. The Group is awaiting some permissions and clearances for building the resort.