Barclays leases 1.8L sq ft in Goregaon for back-end ops

Barclays leases 1.8L sq ft in Goregaon for back-end ops Rajshri Mehta

MUMBAI: Barclays, the London-headquartered banking and financial services company, has leased 1.8 lakh sq ft commercial space with an option to take additional 20,000 sq ft space in Nirlon Knowledge Park, an IT/ITES building on the Western Express Highway in Goregaon.

The nine-year lease deal was struck in May at a monthly rent of about Rs 1.8 crore or Rs 21 crore annually. The lease rental is about Rs 95 per sq ft per month.

Barclays' current headquarters at Ceejay House in Worli is spread across 60,000 sq ft from the 5th to 8th floor, which was taken on rent in 2006. In 2008, Barclays leased commercial market by leasing an additional 15,000 sq ft space for a monthly rent of Rs 1.08 crore at Rs 725 per sq ft. Initially taken for their retail banking business, the bank later gave up this space.

Barclays said it has no plans to relocate from Ceejay House. "The rate at which we got the space was competitive. The new leased space will be used for back-end and operational support to the bank," said the Barclays spokesperson. The new premises can accommodate more than 1,000 employees. CBRE were the transaction advisors in the deal.

The over 300-year-old Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services, with presence in Europe, the US, Africa and Asia.

Nirlon Knowledge Park, with office space of about 20 lakh sq ft, is being developed as an IT under the state government IT policy to allow software technology parks of India benefits to its users, according to information on its website.

Barclay's lease deal comes on the heels of two other major office lease transactions this year.

Walt Disney Company India, which is the Indian arm of the US-based Walt Disney Company, has leased 1.25 lakh sq ft in Solitaire Corporate Park in Andheri (E) at a rate of about Rs 150 per sq ft per month. This will mean an annual lease rental outgo of about Rs 22 crore.

The India office of the company is currently located in Tower I of Peninsula Corporate Park in Lower Parel and has a registered office on Solitaire's eighth floor. The move, sources said, is to consolidate operations at a single location.

American multinational IT services major Cognizant Technology Solutions recently picked up 2.3 lakh sq ft office space at K Raheja Corp's IT SEZ at Airoli in Navi Mumbai. The monthly rent for the lease is fixed at Rs 42 per sq ft with total tenure being 12 years.

US-based software services firm Oracle leased 50,000 sq ft space in the First International Financial Centre in Bandra-Kurla Complex at Rs 340 per sq ft per month.

Though the yearly rent works out to Rs 20 crore, the sq ft rate is on the higher side, said consultants.