Blackstone buys retail space in Seawoods Grand Central worth Rs. 1450 cr

In its second realty deal this year, Blackstone Group Lp is likely to buy a million sq.ft of retail space in the 40-acre transit oriented project which is being developed by L&T Realty in Navi Mumbai around Seawoods Darave railway station. According to sources, Blackstone has in-principle agreed to buy the retail portion of Seawoods Grand Central for Rs. 1,450 crore. L&T Realty also has 4 million sq.ft of commercial office space coming up as part of this massive 40-acre project.

Blackstone is currently conducting due diligence of the project, said the sources cited above. “It will take some time before the transaction to conclude,” the source added.

”with relaxation in FDI (foreign direct investment) norms, Global funds pick up well-positioned malls that promise a steady return of interest on retail assets,” Shashank Jain, partner (transaction services) at consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers India said.

L&T Realty CEO Shrikant Joshi said that as a policy, the company doesn’t plan to run malls and hence wants to sell them to investors.  Nevertheless, it will continue to build them in its projects.  “In Seawoods, we are in talks with several investor partners, but we want someone who will be a creditable successor,” he added.

Blackstone, which has largely invested in buying out office spaces in the country hitherto, is looking at retail shopping assets and hotel projects now.

real estate developers in mumbai

We all know that Mumbai is the financial capital of the country and it is the city where most of the leading real estate developers have their head offices. According to recent survey Bengaluru based real estate firms are well impressed with the skills of those who are working in the Mumbai based real estate firms and due to that most of the Bengaluru based leading real estate developers are approaching to Sr. executives and consultants for the top position who are working for Mumbai based developers.

In last, one year more than 15 Sr. executives from the real estate firms of Mumbai have moved to Bengaluru. In the latest moves, Om Ahuja, CEO of residential services at Jones Lang LaSalle in Mumbai head office, joined Brigade group as the CEO of residential services in Bengaluru. However; 8 months before Ozone group hired the Srinivasan Gopalan on the position of CEO whereas; earlier he was the COO and CFO of Wadhwa group, a Mumbai based real estate firm. Bhavesh Kamdar was earlier with L&T Realty, but recently he joined Embassy group as the head of leasing department.

Om Ahuja, who recently joined Brigade group as the CEO of residential services stated that “In Bengaluru the prospect of joining new company and getting more exposure in real estate sector is much more and due to that I joined Brigade group, which has very good track record in building the best quality integrated townships. Apart from that Brigade group has been recently rated as the great place to work and due to these mentioned reasons I decided to move to Bengaluru and it was easy for me even after spending 20 years in Mumbai.”

Why real estate market of Bengaluru is attracting real estate professional?

In present, Bengaluru is witnessing huge growth in terms of property development as well as price of real estate market and due to that in past eight months of duration the city has witness the sales of more than nine million square feet in commercial space. These days Mumbai based real estate developers are focusing on the luxury residential and commercial development, whereas; in Bengaluru there is demand for office space and city has fuelled the demand for homes buyers as well. However; the city has accounted more than 49 per cent office space absorption in 2014.

According to the reports of Colliers International, Bengaluru has absorbed 13.77 million sq ft of office space in 2014. The Gopalan added that Bengaluru based real estate developers are transparent, professionals and they willing to share project ownership with other private equity firms. In Mumbai, CFO’s of the organizations run the whole show, but in Bengaluru it is the CEO who is responsible to call the shots with the focused operation.

Professionals are running Bengaluru based real estate developers and due to that they are interested in hiring the professionals on frontline. As per the real estate experts, the houses in Bengaluru are listed with the respected names such as; Prestige, Brigade, Puravankara and Sobha as well as some of the unlisted real estate developers such as; Embassy group, RMZ and more. Apart from all these as per the real estate experts companies in Bengaluru are offering better career and growth.