Galadari Hotel kicks off $ 15 m refurbishment plan

By Charumini de Silva 

First time in 35 years of its existence, Galadari Hotel is investing $ 15 million to refurbish the property completely by 2021, with plans to introduce green concepts.

The refurbishment of 450-room hotel will be done in two phases. The second phase of the refurbishment includes the lobby, reception, shops and the restaurants, which the management believes will commence by February 2020 and be completed by the latter part of March 2021. 

“A complete refurbishment was on our cards for a long time although we have done soft renovations and modification of the hotel from time to time in the past 35 years. With the setback we saw after Easter Sunday tragedy, we thought it was the best time to go ahead with our plans. By 2021, we will have a completely new property,” Galadari Hotel General Manager Sampath Siriwardena told journalists.

He said the hotel has already completed three mock up rooms, to be approved by the Dubai based investors on 7 October. The revamped design of the property was done by Architect Philip Weeraratne.

The total investment, which is between $ 13 to $ 15 million, is funded fully by Galadari Brothers.

“Given that there are no changes to be made in the mock up rooms, soon after the approval is given by our investors we can commence the refurbishment process. Half of the rooms will be blocked by the elevator, thereby we won’t have to complexly shutdown our property for the renovation,” Siriwardena said.

Keeping in line with the sustainable hospitality and tourism, he noted that Galadari Hotel will introduce ‘green rooms’ for their guests from 2021 onwards, while also aiming to reduce single use plastic by 50%. In addition, they will have an all-day dining, one bar and three restaurants with different concepts.

The General Manager also expressed hope that they will be able to obtain the return on investment (ROI) within two-and-a-half to three years.

With the facelift of the property, Galadari Hotel also expect to accommodate maximum number of participants coming to Sri Lanka for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Annual General Meeting in May 2021, where 3,500 delegates from 194 countries and 500 media personnel are expected.

He said they hope to generate maximum amount of income during the partly closed rooms from the banquet space which is currently fully booked till early 2021.

Based in the UAE for over 50 years, Galadari Brothers has become an expert in global business, having successfully introduced over 30 global brands into the region. They invested in Sri Lanka in the Galadari Hotel Colombo in 1984 and commenced operations in 1986.