IT TOOK AROUND three months for the New York-headquartered World Trade Centers Association (WTCA) to approve the licence application submitted by Keralam-based HiLITE Group to brand one of its upcoming mega commercial real estate projects in Kozhikode as a World Trade Center (WTC). The association, which connects more than 300 such licensed WTC locations across nearly 100 countries and territories, issues licences to “the best of qualified candidates for a limited number of licence opportunities”, says Scott Wang, vice president, Asia Pacific, WTCA.

Six months after HiLITE got the licence in 2025, WTCA representatives, on a visit to the construction site of WTC Kozhikode, were in for a surprise. “Normally, it takes several years for a licensee to complete a WTC. When WTCA representatives visited us they found we had completed the first tower within six months of receiving the licence,” says P. Sulaiman, chairman, HiLITE Group.

And it was not just the speed of execution that caught the attention of the WTCA team. The project is bang in the middle of HiLITE’s flagship 100-acre mixed-use integrated township, which already houses one of Keralam’s biggest and busiest malls (HiLITE Mall), commercial and office towers (HiLITE Business Park), premium residential towers (HiLITE Olympus, HiLITE Patra) and newer projects under development.

HiLITE has grand plans for WTC Kozhikode. “When we started planning WTC Kozhikode, we realised that it could become the largest WTC in the world in terms of built-up area,” says Sulaiman. Expected to be completed by 2030, WTC Kozhikode will span 12.5 million sq. ft, several times bigger than Dubai’s iconic Burj Khalifa (by area, not height).

WTC is poised to become a defining landmark of Kozhikode, one of the fastest-growing Tier II cities of India, and the third biggest city of Keralam after the state’s business hub Kochi and administrative capital Thiruvananthapuram. “WTC Kozhikode is going to become a vibrant two-way hub between the Kozhikode business community and the global WTCA network. It connects the Kozhikode business community with business opportunities of the global WTCA network while providing the global business community with local access to Kozhikode,” says Wang. The WTCA’s India strategy (with more than 30 WTCs, it is the second-largest country network for WTCA after the U.S.) is focussed on Tier II and III cities as it considers these crucial to India’s further economic growth and inclusive development. “A key part of our India strategy has been to serve as a catalyst to help these cities emerge as important economic hubs for India,” Wang says.

As a first-generation entrepreneur, WTC Kozhikode has been Sulaiman’s biggest bet so far.

GROWTH STORY

Thirty years ago, Sulaiman, a qualified civil engineer, left his job in West Asia and returned to his hometown Kozhikode with ‘zero capital’ to start a construction business. Five years later, his company HiLITE Constructions became the first in Keralam to introduce HiLITE Readymix — ready-made mixed concrete for construction. In 2003, the group expanded into real estate development with the launch of HiLITE Builders, initially focussing on residential apartments. Three years later, it launched The Focus Mall, often considered Keralam’s first shopping mall, in Kozhikode. “Our goal is to be the first in Keralam in everything we do. When we introduced readymix concrete, we were the first to do it, Focus Mall was the first mall in Keralam, HiLITE City, Keralam’s first mixed-use development, started in 2009 and Keralam’s first business tower came up within this complex. HiLITE Metromax (which came up in 2011) was the first apartment complex in Malabar region (North Keralam),” says Sulaiman. HiLITE Mall Kozhikode and HiLITE Mall Thrissur are powered entirely by solar energy — first for Keralam, and possibly for India.

The group’s landmark commercial projects include the 18-floor YOO Hub Trivandrum, a branded IT park spanning 518,000 sq. ft, developed inside Technopark Phase III in Thiruvananthapuram; this project is expected to be completed within three years. HiLITE Boulevard, a waterfront destination designed as an upmarket high street retail development with retail areas, entertainment zones, adventure sports and food clusters in Kochi is awaiting inauguration. The group is also aggressively announcing small format malls, with HiLITE Centre, Mannarkkad in Palakkad district and HiLITE Countryside, Chemmad in Malappuram district almost complete.

To date, the group has delivered more than 8,000 homes with a cumulative residential built up area of 18 million sq. ft. Similarly, over 500 corporate spaces totalling 4.2 million sq. ft of commercial area has been delivered. Another 5 million sq. ft of retail space exists across the shopping malls the company has built. Sulaiman says if one also takes into account the individual houses his company has built since 1996, the total will come to about 35 million sq. ft.

The group’s operations — construction to leasing to outright sales — are routed through over a dozen legal entities; each focussing on a specialised area of infrastructure development. It is managed by a 29-member leadership team, with each ‘navigator’ in charge and responsible for the growth of specific business divisions.

In the next five years, Sulaiman wants to do more than what HiLITE has done in the past 30. “In 2023-24, we had achieved our ₹2,000 crore turnover target. In 2025-26, our turnover across all businesses was over ₹3,000 crore. This year we announced that our target is to build 50 million sq. ft in five years, which means, an investment of ₹20,000 crore across infrastructure, retail, commercial hubs, across Keralam by 2030.”

Prashant Thakur, executive director & head, research & advisory of real estate consultancy ANAROCK Group, says this size of large-scale development pipeline can be meaningful to the real estate market of Keralam as it will inevitably deepen the urban form, bring in new housing options and add organised commercial supply in a state where quality stock is still uneven across cities. “Executed well, such a scheme can also improve infrastructure, boost retail activity, and generate more jobs in the surrounding area,” says Thakur. “In this space, what separates a company is often scale of execution, land aggregation, quality of design, and ability to create mixed-use ecosystems. The key challenges are approvals, capital intensity, pace of absorption, and balancing growth with demand visibility and infrastructure readiness,” he adds.

PARTNERSHIP MODEL

The Group’s ability to scale is largely driven by its 15,000-plus and growing number of investors. In fact, every project has its own set of investors with some putting money in multiple projects. Sulaiman says none of them are institutional investors. “So far, there are hardly any big investors. The maximum investment (by a single investor) must be in the ₹5-10 crore range, not more,” he says.

Sulaiman explains that while HiLITE doesn’t have the exact same model for all projects, pattern is more or less the same. “For instance, let’s say there is a mall project and we are enrolling investors. We will offer them a fixed rate of return on investment (RoI) which we expect as regular income from that project from the very first year of accepting their money. Irrespective of the status of the project, they will continue to get those returns. Once the project is complete, and the mall achieves the committed turnover (rental income), we will claim our stake and take out our share of profits,” he says. However, if the revenues are below target even after the period specified in the agreement, “we will dilute our share in favour of investor shareholders. That is the high risk we are taking.” The group’s business, he says, is “dependent on the 30 years of trust” he has built among investors.

One difference the model brings in is that the investment that comes into each project becomes the company’s revenue, as it is primarily investment in unit sales. “The variations of our model have evolved over years. Now we are going to make it more systematic. We are going to launch a Sebi-approved fund for this purpose now,” says Sulaiman.

The partnership model has its own challenges, too. While it helps access capital at reasonable costs, project delays can scuttle the entire business plan. “We are saying we have plans to build 50 million sq. ft in five years. Almost 50% of the ₹20,000 crore of investments have been committed already. This means, each day’s delay matters. Our time starts to tick the day we accept money from the investor. We have assured them returns from day one. The value of each day is immense,” Sulaiman says.

According to him, the biggest facilitation governments can do for infrastructure development is by making sure that there are no delays in approvals, decisions, etc. “That will be the biggest help they can do. Ensure that the projects are not getting stuck due to procedural hurdles.” By far, HiLITE has been able to stick to its completion deadlines, Sulaiman adds. With bigger projects like WTC on the anvil, establishment of a fund that can attract institutional investors is thus the logical next step.

THE PROMISE

If there is one idea that connects all the projects that HiLITE does, it is what its brand tagline says: the finer side of life. Sulaiman believes that the business potential of HiLITE’s projects across residential, commercial, education, hospitality, entertainment, retail, healthcare sectors lies in the inherent desire of Keralites to experience the finer side of life. With the entire state becoming a sort of urban continuum, projects planned in every part of the state can turn viable with cities like Kozhikode a safe bet, he believes.

“If we create world class facilities, we will have customers. Reverse migration will not happen until we create facilities and opportunities for them. That is what we are doing here. Once you have an IT park, people will come back to work, and live in their home towns. People might compromise their salary package, but they won’t compromise on facilities and modern living standards,” he says.

WTC Kozhikode, planned as seven independent towers, is going to make even corporates experience the ‘finer side of life’, says Sulaiman. The first tower, The WTC Learning Park, is introducing the concept of having multiple universities in the same campus, similar to what many countries like Singapore have. The WTC location will also see an ultra-luxury hotel and a business class hotel coming up. Another hospitality project is planned within KINFRA Business Bay, the business park HiLITE is developing in the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation’s industry park in Kozhikode.

The allied businesses that HiLITE has ventured into also live up to its tagline. Palaxi cinemas, a multiplex theatre chain can rival the PVRs of the world, and was the first to introduce the EPIQ screen in the state, at the HiLITE Mall, Thrissur. HiLITE Group’s The White School International in Kozhikode offers International Baccalaureate (IB) syllabus to its students and its upcoming Elanine Women’s Hospital aims at providing ultra-premium medical care for women.

WTCA looks for certain attributes in its licensed members. The experience and financial ability of the licensee to implement the proposed WTC Business Plan is one such pre-requisite. Proven expertise in commercial real estate development and management, market demand for premier commercial properties and trade services in the proposed city, commitment to boost regional economic growth, strong support from local government and the business community and dedication to the proper use of the World Trade Center brand and trademarks are the other key attributes it seeks. HiLITE seems to have ticked all of the boxes, if the speedy licence approval process is any indication.

What needs to be seen is whether the association’s expectation that WTC Kozhikode will connect the city to global routes and position it as a major hub for business, and thus amplify Kozhikode’s growth, will fructify. If that happens, it is a win-win, for HiLITE, WTCA, and the state’s economy.