INDO-US In The News

By MICHAEL SASSO, The Tampa Tribune
Published: July 26, 2007

TAMPA - Indian-American businessmen from across Florida, including an East Coast hotelier, a Largo pharmaceutical executive and a Tampa mortgage broker, appear to be financially backing a Tampa company’s plan to build two Westin hotels, a W hotel and possibly even a Ritz-Carlton in the Bay area.

The company’s ambitious plans may be a sign of the increasing clout of the area’s Indian community, particularly in hotels and resorts. At least two other developers who are from India or of Indian descent are planning high-end hotels in Tampa’s Rocky Point area.

This week, news slipped out that Fuel Group International had purchased the former Best Western hotel on Tampa’s West Shore Boulevard, now called the Westshore Hotel. County property records show the purchase price as $17.4 million.

Meanwhile, the company’s Web site, at www.fuelgroupinternational.com, revealed a series of proposed hotel projects:

•Redeveloping the Westshore Hotel into a Westin hotel/office project.

•Building a high-end boutique W hotel near the Tampa Convention Center.

•Building a 22-story Westin hotel/condo building in downtown St. Petersburg.

•Building a W or Ritz-Carlton as part of the Kiran Grand Resort & Spa in Clearwater Beach, which is being developed by businessman and philanthropist Kiran Patel.

The company’s Web site shows that its entertainment arm owns two Fuel nightclubs in Ybor City and the Channel District. The company is controlled by J.S. Lalwani and his father, Jiwat Lalwani, a former energy industry executive in Nigeria who is on the board of the Indo-US Chamber of Commerce, a local Indian-American business group.

A Fuel Group official, Richard MacKizer, declined to say where the company is getting the millions it needs to pull off its ambitious plans.

However, Florida corporation records list several Indian-American businessmen who are partners in the companies that Fuel Group has created to invest in the hotels.

Among them are:

•Shubh Hotels. Led by Atul Bisaria, this Boca Raton-based hotel company owns four hotels across the country, including a Hilton hotel in Pittsburgh and a Doubletree Guest Suites in Boca Raton. It also manages five other hotels across the country, its Web site says. Bisaria did not return calls Wednesday.

•Jugal Taneja. A New Delhi immigrant, Taneja is chairman of a Largo company called GeoPharma that manufactures generic drugs and nutritional supplements. Federal securities filings show the company had revenue of about $60 million and profits of about $2.2 million in its 2007 fiscal year, which ended in March. However, Taneja said recent acquisitions may bring the company’s annual revenue up to $200 million within months.

Taneja said he has a 50 percent interest in the Westshore Westin hotel project, a 20 percent interest in the downtown St. Petersburg project and a 2.5 percent interest in the W hotel project in downtown Tampa.

Taneja said the real estate market is in a state of flux, and the company is taking its time in developing the hotel projects.

•Santosh Govindaraju. Chairman of the Indo-US Chamber, Govindaraju is head of a Tampa mortgage lending business called Paragon Capital Partners. Florida corporation records show that one of his affiliated companies is involved with the downtown Tampa W hotel project. He declined to comment Wednesday.

Across the country, hoteliers of Indian descent nearly dominate some sectors of the industry. Indians own 39 percent of midmarket hotels in America, according to the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.

Dilipkumar ‘Danny’ Patel is chairman of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association. Combined, its members control 24,000 hotels, Patel said. Indian-American hoteliers today control about 39 percent of the U.S. midmarket hotel industry, typified by Holiday Inn Express and Comfort Inn. They command 50 percent of the economy segment, typified by Travelodge and others, Patel said.

Most often, Indian-Americans enter the industry through small economy hotels and acquire higher-end hotels as they grow more successful, Patel said. Locally, hotel developer Dilip Kanji is planning a Westin hotel and condo project along the Courtney Campbell Causeway in Tampa. Meanwhile, Clearwater developer Sandip Patel is hoping to replace a Radisson hotel on Rocky Point with a Ritz-Carlton.

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865 or msasso@tampatrib.com.