 "J Kumar Infraprojects leases 82,000-sq ft office in Mumbai")
In one of the biggest office leasing deals in the country in recent years, infrastructure company J Kumar Infraprojects has leased 81,588 square feet in an office building in Bandra Kurla Complex area of Mumbai, said a source in the know of the development.
J Kumar will pay Rs 375 a square feet per month or Rs 37 crore annually to Parinee Developers, the owner of the building, for three years, including a six-month rent-free period. The amount includes property tax and common maintenance charges, the source added.
The infra company has leased the space on the second, 11th and 12th floors in Crescenzo and both of them have registered the agreement.
The space is part of the earlier floors leased by Parinee Developers to Sahara group (Aamby Valley) in 2012 and 2013. However, Sahara left the premises in mid-2015 without completing the term, probably due to the legal and financial troubles faced by the organisation, sources added.
A J Kumar Infraprojects spokesperson said: “We have taken the space on lease for the staff of our Metro Projects. We are waiting for our office building to be completed and then we will move out of this premise to our own office. For the first six months, there will be no rent and we can vacate the place at any point of time.”
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A Parinee group spokesperson declined to comment.
The building stands on a 2.22-acre plot, which Parinee reportedly acquired from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on an 80-year leasehold basis in July 2006 for Rs 536 crore. It received occupancy certificate from MMRDA in March 2012 and has a total built-up area of 722,365 sq ft constructed over two levels of basement, ground and 19 floors above ground level. Standard Chartered Bank currently owns nearly half of the building, said CRE Matrix, a real estate analytics firm.
“The high rent substantiates the fact that the premium office market in Mumbai is buoyant with high demand chasing low availability of quality space, particularly of larger floor-plates. However, after Sahara vacated last year, it took Parinee more than a year to get part of the space leased, indicating the long search time for tenants and landlords alike,” said Abhishek Kiran Gupta, chief executive of CRE Matrix.
A number of big-ticket deals have taken place in office spaces in recent months.
Singapore’s DBS Bank is set to lease 100,000 sq ft in Express Towers in Mumbai's Nariman Point and the lease deal is expected to be around Rs 30 crore a year.
Among the premium office complexes, Maker Maxity continues to remain the preferred destination for office occupiers in BKC, where Mastercard, Mattel Toys, Qatar National Bank and Apple recently leased between 8,000 and 15,000 square feet each with gross rents at Rs 315-380 a square feet per month, Gupta said. “Among the four tenants mentioned above, three tenants ended up paying security deposits of more than 12 months. This trend of high security deposits further adds to the effective occupancy costs being incurred by the tenants.”
The demand for office space in BKC is projected to remain high and rents would continue facing upward pressure in the absence of quality supply of office space. The last Grade A building to be constructed in the premium financial district of Mumbai was One BKC, a 1.5-million sq ft office building developed by Radius Developers that became operational in 2015. Further office supply in BKC is expected from the Godrej BKC, Reliance Convention Centre and Adani Realty’s Inspire BKC that will become operational in the next six to 12 months.
