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| Edited By: Ashish K Tiwari |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 22, 2018, 02:07 AM IST
We have been present in the US market and playing to our strength with Veria for a while now in terms of wellness and related television content. In fact, we have now rechristened Veria to Zee Living, which is an English channel for the mainline American audience. From that channel we are taking the next big step, which is actually building a wellness centre. This project is about making people feel well all over again and is different from healthcare. It involves various therapies like yoga, ayurveda, nature cure, physiotherapy, acupuncture and nutrition. It's an exceptional property targeted at people who also wish to seek a smart investment option.
We have already acquired 1,300 acres of pristine forest about 100 miles away from the New York City. The wellness centre is being planned in the premises of the fabled Kutsher's Country Club, once the grand resort of the Catskill Mountains' Borscht Belt. As part of the project, this property will be converted into a 250-room complex, including a brand new 131-room hotel. The plan also includes renovating an existing 60-room hotel building, independent villas and an 18-hole championship golf course.
The financials are part of confidential documents right now. Hence, the details cannot be disclosed. As soon as the business goes public in the near future, we will be able to share information about how much investment has been made.
The United States provides a means of entry for wealthy people who will pump money into its economy. This is known as the employment fifth preference (EB-5) visa, which allows people to obtain permanent residence immediately upon entry to the US. Applicants for a US green card based on investment are required to invest between $500,000 and $1 million in a US business. While they are required to take an active role in that business, it not necessary that need to control it. An EB-5-approved development is the fastest way to get a US citizenship and we will be tapping high networth individuals (HNIs) from around the world who can invest in this project and avail the visa benefits. So, it's kind of public private partnership where we (Essel Group) will create the infrastructure and jobs, and the US government will handover the visas to investors provided it's compliant and within their rules. It's ideal for potential investors to invest in this scheme which will not only secure their funds but also assure them an equity and US citizenship for them and their family. Considering the volatile global economy, investment in this property is unique as it has returns with a difference.
We can take up to 200 such investors for the Veria development. We have already got several people who are ready to move forward with this scheme. The issue sometimes is liquidity as some are trying to liquidate their asset to fund the investment. We are holding on until we know for sure how many of these investors are in a position to move forward so that we can partner with them.
Our price points are on the higher levels compared to what's typically out there in the market already. We will be working on packages that will include weekends, stays for a week or 10 days and longer stays depending on the therapies being opted for.
We got the approval for our project last year in June and construction work is going in full-swing as we speak. In fact, we have already spent several million dollars. We want to be able to do a soft launch very soon and the potential date we have in mind is the 'International Yoga Day' next year. In fact, ground-breaking on the project happened on that very same day last year. So, next year will be a good time to soft launch the wellness centre.
Veria Lifestyle Capital is the name of the EB-5 company which is developing the project. We will be creating our own brand for the hotel. Certain aspects of the brand are yet to finalise as we are a while away from opening. We are not decided if to go with Veria or Living or something like that. As some point in time we will figure that out and start working on it towards the end of this year.
Going by the numbers right now, it all depends on who are our key people for the actual operations of the various therapies at the wellness centre. Based on that, we will be running numbers to figure out what we can do in terms of pricing. And from the pricing we will work out the breakeven, which will require meeting certain amount of occupancy levels. Until the operation heads come on board, it will be very difficult to give out an estimate.
