Two L&T firms eye 1.4 million sq ft in group's office park in Chennai

Two L&T firms eye 1.4 million sq ft in group’s office park in Chennai

Technology firms L&T Infotech( LTI) and L&T Technology Services (LTTS) are in talks to pre-lease around 1.4 million sq ft of office space in L&T’s upcoming commercial office in Chennai in the largest commercial space leasing transaction this year. The lease will be spread over a term of 10 years at the L&T Innovation Campus, a mixed-use development sprawling over 40 acres.

“The facility is scheduled to be delivered and be operational by the end of 2024, and can seat over 15,000 employees for the technology firms,” said a person aware of the deal. The 4.5 million sq ft IT Park will be one of the biggest IT Parks in Chennai. The site was earlier the manufacturing facility for L&T Valves.

Once concluded, this will be the third lease signed this year by the company.

Earlier this year, L&T Realty pre-leased 600,000 sq ft for office space to technology firm Mindtree in its upcoming commercial office in Chennai. L&T could not be reached for comment.

L&T is also in talks with CapitaLand to sell three towers spread across 2 million sq ft. “The deal is under due diligence and May take another quarter to close,” said the person cited earlier. Both L&T Infotech and L&T Technology Services have expanded their talent pool over the last two years.

L&T Technology Services alone hired over 3,000 freshers last year and is expected to hire similar numbers in FY2023. India’s IT services sector created more than 500,000 new jobs in FY22, reports show. This is twice the number predicted earlier for the net growth of the country’s active IT workforce for 2022.

This high growth can be attributed to attrition refills to make up for the annual attrition rate of 22-25%. Last year’s projections stated that India’s IT industry would create 220,000-260,000 new jobs.