BANGALORE: RMZ Corp, one of India's top office space developers, has signed fresh leases for over 1.5-million sqft of office space and sold close to a million sqft, signaling continued demand for office space in the country's IT capital. All of this commercial space action is happening at RMZ's 52-acre Ecoworld IT Park located on Outer Ring Road, which the developer had bought for over Rs 1,000 crore a few years ago.
US conglomerate Honeywell is buying 8-lakh sqft of built-to-suit non-SEZ office space in Ecoworld for close to Rs 600 crore, said multiple sources briefed on the matter. This deal marks one of the biggest office space purchases by an MNC in the recent past.
The transaction will also see the $40-billion manufacturer of commercial and consumer products consolidate its Bangalore operations that is spread across two hubs in the city.
Honeywell at present operates out of a leased
SEZ facility in RMZ Ecoworld and has another standalone office space in Kalyani campus on Bannerghatta Road.
"Honeywell is evaluating potential buildto-suit campus solutions but has not executed any binding agreements to date. It is premature to comment," said a Honeywell spokesperson.
RMZ Corp MD Raj Menda said the Ecoworld project saw the absorption of 3.25 million sqft of new space (that is to be built) in the last 12 months. That absorption, he said, included a sale component to Honeywell, but he declined to comment further.
RMZ Ecoworld currently has 1.4 lakh sqft of operational leased office space, with the potential to build an additional 6.1 million sqft of office space.
The big new lease transactions at Ecoworld include those of global consultancy firm KPMG (7-lakh sqft), Australian bank ANZ (4 lakh sqft) and European software major SAP (3 lakh sqft). The lease deals are a mix of expansion as well as consolidation of operations for the MNCs. RMZ confirmed the client names, but not the lease sizes.
Among Indian cities, Bangalore is the biggest absorber of grade-A office spaces and last year crossed a milestone when it joined the global club of office markets that have over 100-million sqft of leased space in operation.
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com