NewcrestImage to go international with Courtyard in India

Mehul Patel. Photo credit: NewcrestImage

Hotel Management has learned NewcrestImage plans to expand outside the United States with a Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Vadodara, India. The Lewisville, Texas-based owner/operator expects to open the 14-floor, 123-room hotel in March 2021.

Daxesh Patel, NewcrestImage’s COO of construction finance, is leading all aspects of the company's first non-U.S. hotel from acquisition and design through construction. “The decision to grow international has always been a consideration for NewcrestImage since our formation in 2012,” he told Hotel Management in an email.  “The execution was pending the right opportunity with the right brand in the right market. We believe we have found that with the Courtyard in Vadodara.”

Daxesh Patel. Photo credit: NewcrestImage

NewcrestImage plans to do more strategizing about further international expansion once the Vadodara Courtyard is open and operating, according to Patel. “It is too soon to discuss which markets just yet; however, we are open to investing/ developing anywhere in the world at this point,” he said.

“With India’s hotel market growing at a compounded annual rate of about 13 percent, there is robust demand by both business and leisure travelers, especially in the midmarket segment,” Mehul Patel, chairman/CEO of NewcrestImage, said in a statement.

The upcoming Courtyard will mark the first Marriott International-branded hotel in Vadodara, which is the third largest city in the western state of Gujarat and has a metro area population of about 4 million people. The market is a base for oil, chemicals, fertilizer and power generation businesses and is a growing center for information technology and engineering.

According to Daxesh Patel, there are approximately 2 million square feet of office space in walking distance of NewcrestImage’s upcoming hotel. Consequently, he expects about 70 percent of the property’s guests to be either domestic or foreign business travelers.

The Courtyard by Marriott Vadodara will include 13,000 square feet of meeting space, including an outdoor terrace and a rooftop deck for special events, a restaurant with private dining areas, a café, an outdoor swimming pool and a 30-car underground parking garage.

U.S. Expansion

In July, NewcrestImage introduced a nationwide expansion plan with the goal of increasing its portfolio value by $2 billion. That plan includes raising and investing $250 million in equity funding over the next two years. That expansion plan has included the opening of three hotels—a dual-branded hotel in Frisco, Texas, and an AC Hotel in Houston—this July.

NewcrestImage also has started construction on multiple projects this year, including a four-hotel complex with 700 rooms an 80,000-square-foot office building in Grapevine, Texas. Additionally, it also began work on a 199-room AC Hotel in Phoenix, marking the company’s first property in the western U.S.

NewcrestImage's portfolio consists of 32 owned and managed hotels in 10 states. It has another 18 properties under construction or in development.