When I completed the renovation and reuse of The House of MG from a residential mansion to a boutique hotel in 1996, I was looking to scale up. It was clear that heritage had a USP and as traditional architecture is intrinsically environment friendly, I found them meaningful to work with. Besides, most heritage properties are superbly adaptable to different uses. For me, this makes them unbeatable 360-degree design (as well as a business) opportunity.
On one hand, I was refusing customers at the twelve- room House of MG and though I was adding thirty more rooms in the remaining half of the mansion that I had recently acquired from cousins, I could easily do with more rooms. On the other hand, spectacular havelis lay scattered and abandoned all around, with no takers. I sensed an opportunity to leverage on what I had already started.
Many of these havelis are barely 10 minutes away from the main hotel. Guests can check in at the 'hub' hotel and be transported by shuttle to their rooms in 'spoke' properties. The access to local craftsmen in this area can also feed my parallel retail operation of handcrafted designed products.
Mangaldas ni Haveli, with its café and craft centre shop is the first property to be completed. Though over 200 years old, it now has every modern amenity that is needed. In the pipeline are haveli hotels, shops and design studios in the same area.
There is no reason why other booming tier two cities cannot adopt this model and infuse a new and throbbing energy in their historical precincts.
Personal Profile:
Born and raised in Ahmedabad, Abhay returned to his roots after completing Master's in Mass Communication (with a major in Computer Graphics and animation) from Boston University and later spending eight years in different ventures in Mumbai. It was providence that in a family separation, the company that he heads purchased his great-grand father's mansion and he has since been emersed in restoration and reuse. He wears the hats of both creative head and operations head for his hotel, restaurants and retail ventures. He lives alone with his four boxer dogs in an old family home. An adrenaline junkie, he finds his fix in adventure sport.
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