Google leases one lakh sq ft office space in Mumbai

Internet giant Google Inc has picked up over 1 lakh sq ft office space in First International Financial Centre (FIFC) Tower, partly owned by the US private equity major Blackstone Group, in Mumbai’s secondary business district Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) through a long-term lease, said two persons with direct knowledge of the development. The office space spread over two floors in FIFC will attract monthly lease rental of Rs 275 per sq ft. The total tenure of the lease is nine years and the contract includes a clause to cover 15% rental escalation every three years. “The lease transaction was concluded nearly a month ago. The fit-outs are being planned now as Google is looking to shift into the new and bigger office as early as possible,” said one of the persons mentioned above. Google has a total of four offices in India, including its country headquarters in Hyderabad. In Mumbai, its current office spread over 20,000 sq ft is located at BKC’s North Avenue Maker Maxity and the company is in the process of shifting from this complex to the five times bigger office in FIFC. The 12-storey FIFC Tower counts global companies, including Oracle and McKinsey & Company, as other key occupiers, while part-owner Citigroup occupies a total of six floors. Citibank’s India headquarters is housed in this tower. Around 3 lakh sq ft, or nearly half of the 6.57 lakh sq ft building, is owned by global banking major Citibank Group. Last year, Blackstone Group along with its partner Panchshil Realty, acquired over 3.60 lakh sq ft spread over six floors in this tower for about Rs 850 crore. The tower was developed by a consortium of US-based investors including funds affiliated with Starwood Capital Group, India Property Fund sponsored by The Chatterjee Group & Vornado Realty Trust and Urban Infrastructure Real Estate Fund. These investors were holding the property through a consortium company, Earnest Trading Private Ltd (ETPL). The US private equity major, according to media reports, is also in talks to acquire two office buildings in BKC, including Adani Realty’s Inspire BKC and Radius Developers’ One BKC in separate transactions for about Rs 1,900 crore and Rs 2,300 crore, respectively. Interestingly, in one of the recent large lease transactions in BKC, Swiss multinational pharmaceutical major Novartis’ India arm had picked up over 1 lakh sq ft of office space in Inspire BKC last year. In early 2012, global banking major Citigroup had acquired around 3 lakh sq ft office space in this building for Rs 985 crore in the largest property deal then. Two Citigroup entities -- Citibank NA and Citigroup Global Markets -- had signed the deal then to acquire entire six floors of the 12-story FIFC Tower. In 2013, software maker Oracle India had inked a nine-year lease deal for 50,000 sq ft of office space in the building. US technology company Apple has also leased around 12,000 sq ft office space in it.