After establishing its footprints in the Indian retail sector with Lifestyle, Max and Home Centre brands, Dubai-based Landmark Group is eyeing the hospitality pie. It has already instituted a separate company christened Citymax Hotels (India) and expects the first hotel to launch in the next 15 months.

The hotel chain will be named Citymax and will be positioned in the three-star category. The room rates will be upwards of Rs 2,000. The hotels will be launched in different phases with about a dozen properties getting operational in phase I. First Citymax hotel will launch towards the latter half of 2008.

Taking the leasing route for procuring hospitality real-estate, the management will explore greenfield projects through joint venture and even management contracts as a strategy for its hospitality footprint across tier I and tier II cities. While acquisition as a strategy cannot be ruled out completely, the company may consider inorganic growth purely on a need-based situation. Some of the other locations identified by Citymax besides Bangalore include Bangalore, Pune, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, among others.