NEW DELHI: Avendus Capital Private Limited, one of India’s largest investment banks, which also offers wealth management services, credit solutions and its own funds, has leased four floors covering a total of approx. 1,00,000 sqft of saleable area at Platina located at G Block in suburban Mumbai’s commercial business district BKC, for a monthly rent starting at about Rs 2,53,63,844.
It has leased the space from The Wadhwa Group, one of India’s leading real estate development companies and a prominent realty player in Mumbai. Platina is also the HeadQuarters of The Wadhwa Group themselves.
The lease tenure which was registered on September 16, 2022 is for 60 months which realizes to an average rate of Rs 278/- per sq.ft., with both tenant and owner having to stick to a lock-in period of entire 5 years taking the overall value of the deal to approx. Rs 170 crore. Avendus Capital has paid around Rs 15.22 crore as a security deposit, the lease deed showed.
Commenting on the lease deal Mr. Sameer Kamath – Executive Director and Group CFO at Avendus Capital said, “The premise in Platina, BKC will be our new head office and will house all our businesses, with over 450 employees based in Mumbai. We are a people-intensive business and this is part of our overall growth plans. We plan to move to the new premises in Q4 of FY23.”
“Commercial leasing activity is back in Mumbai with employees returning to office post the pandemic on the back of strong economic growth. The location should command a premium based on the time it takes to reach there and the multiple modes of transport available and therefore BKC perfectly fits the bill for all the leading corporates. These factors have helped us to close the deals efficiently,” said Navin Makhija – Managing Director, The Wadhwa Group.
In the past few years BKC has evolved as a financial hub with leading corporates setting up their offices here. BKC, due to its central location provides seamless connectivity to the domestic & international airport, eastern & western express highway, metro rail and suburban railway lines. Also, with the presence of several business hotels, it has become a preferred location for corporates.
Platina in BKC houses many premium brands such as SMBC (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation), Avaya, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Ferrari, SAP India Pvt.Ltd, Consulate of Chile, Grohe India, Cochlear Medical Devices, etc.
The real estate sector will continue to show growth momentum with leasing activity across the segment showing an uptick in H1 2022, which will trickle down to H2 2022, according to a CII-CBRE report.
With offices reopening, the outlook for office space absorption revised upward from previous projections and is expected to touch 53-57 million sqft by the end of 2022. The report said that in H1 2022, 29.5 million sqft of leasing activity was recorded, up 157 per cent Y-o-Y.
With the Covid-19 pandemic receding, employees are coming back to offices either full-time or in a hybrid model. This has resulted in a spurt in a leasing activity.