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Realty major DLF announced an investment of around Rs 550 crore to construct a one-million-square-feet office building for Standard Chartered Global Business Services’ largest campus globally.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin laid the foundation stone of the office campus in ‘DLF Downtown’ project at Taramani in Chennai.
In October 2020, DLF had pre-leased 7.7 lakh square feet office space to Standard Chartered Global Business Services (GBS) and the latter has an option to take the remaining area. “We are developing a one-million-square-feet building, which has two blocks, for Standard Chartered GBS. The total construction cost is estimated at around Rs 550 crore,” Sriram Khattar, managing director of DLF Rental Business, said.
The DLF Downtown-Chennai project, spread over 27 acres and comprising 6.8 million square feet area, is being developed by DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL) with an investment of Rs 5,000 crore.
DCCDL is a joint venture between DLF and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC. In the first phase, DLF is constructing a total of 3.3 million square feet area, including one million square feet building for Standard Chartered.
The construction of 2.3 million square feet is already undergoing and will be completed by the end of next fiscal, while the Standard Chartered campus will be completed by mid-2024. Khattar said the company has a presence in the state since 17 years and operates the largest IT SEZ ‘DLF Cybercity, Chennai’ at Manapakkam comprising 7.2 million square feet area. This SEZ has contributed a cumulative export revenue of about Rs 84,000 crore since its inception and around 70,000 professionals are working, he added.
“Once DLF Downtown is completed and operational, DLF will have a footprint of about 14 million square feet of commercial workspaces in the city, making it the second-largest market after Gurugram,” Khattar said.
He said the company is optimistic about its investment in Tamil Nadu, which is fast emerging as a leading global hub for IT/ ITeS, manufacturing, and R&D (research and development).
“A development like DLF Downtown in a location like Taramani should generate the income of Rs 700-750 crore when fully functional,” he said, adding that around 70,000 employees will work from DLF Downtown Chennai.
DLF Offices Executive Director Amit Grover said: “The project is designed with high-end specifications and has been awarded a Platinum LEED Certification by US Green Building Council.” Matthew Norris, global head at Standard Chartered GBS, said: “We envision that our largest campus globally at DLF Downtown Taramani will define the future of work with its people-centric design around hybrid work patterns, further enhancing employee wellness, engagement and productivity with sustainable measures.”
DLF is India’s leading real estate developer. It has developed around 153 real estate projects and developed an area of about 331 million square feet. The group has 215 million square feet of development potential across residential and commercial segments. The group has an annuity portfolio of over 35 million square feet, of which 33 million square feet is LEED Platinum certified by the US Green Building Council.
