Avendus Capital leases 1 lakh sq ft in Mumbai's BKC

Avendus Capital leases 1 lakh sq ft in Mumbai’s BKC

Financial services group Avendus Capital has picked up nearly 1 lakh sq ft office space in commercial tower Platina in Mumbai’s business district Bandra-Kurla Complex through a long-term lease of five years with the property developer Wadhwa Group.

The company will be paying average monthly rentals of Rs 278 per sq ft including the rental escalation over the total tenure of the lease, taking its total pay out to around Rs 153.44 crore during the entire term. The starting monthly rent will be 2.53 crore, showed the documents accessed by ET.

Avendus Capital currently operates out of a nearly 55,000-sq-ft office in beleaguered IL&FS’ erstwhile headquarters, a 10-storey iconic property in BKC. Global alternative investment major Brookfield Asset Management recently emerged as the successful bidder for this IL&FS property and is in the process of acquiring the same.

“Yes, the premise in Platina, BKC will be our new head office and will house all our businesses, home to 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,” said Sameer Kamath, Group CFO, Avendus, while confirming the deal.

The company has leased the office space spread over four floors through two separate transactions that were registered on Friday. The financial services company has paid a security deposit of over 15.22 crore to the developer Raghuleela Estates, a subsidiary of the Wadhwa Group.

“Front office markets like BKC, Worli and Lower Parel are witnessing a very strong comeback in 2022 on the back of leasing activity by large Indian and international Investment Banks, law firms, consulting companies and private equity firms. We anticipate rents to increase aggressively for the BKC trophy assets,” said Rachit Mohan, Co-Head, Office Leasing Advisory, India, JLL.

As part of the deal, the company will also get exclusive access to a total 80 car parking slots.

Both, the tenant as well as the property owner’s side will have to stick to a lock-in period of the entire five years term of the lease.

Platina is one of the early developments in the business district of BKC and it houses key tenants like SAP, Sumitomo Corp, Ferrari, GROHE, Bandhan Bank and Avaya across its 3.5 sq ft office space.

The commercial office segment, which was significantly impacted by the pandemic, has made a strong comeback in the last 3-4 quarters, supported by strong economic growth, increased hiring, and a return to the office trend, keeping the office sector buoyant.

The Indian office market grew substantially and delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2022. Office transactions recorded at 25.3 million sq ft, a 107% on-year growth, indicated the potential of the market on the back of a waning pandemic and the promise of a sustained economic recovery.

New large-size leases are an indication that the market is seeing a steady recovery and confidence among occupiers with regard to the organisations’ real estate requirements is inching upward.