At a time when most companies are focusing on work-from-home as the new normal, global consulting firm ANSR’s India arm has leased 3 lakh sq ft space across eight floors in Embassy NXT, the premium new office tower in Embassy Manyata Business Park in Bengaluru, sources told Moneycontrol.
The company has signed a long-term lease in Embassy NXT in addition to its existing 3.5 lakh sq ft with Embassy Office Parks, taking the total area to 6.5 lakh sq ft. The new office will be operational from October, an Embassy spokesperson confirmed.
"We continue to see robust demand from global corporations and are pleased that existing occupiers such as ANSR are expanding their operations in India," the spokesperson told Moneycontrol.
The partnership comes in at a crucial time for the economy and serves as a positive reinforcement against the backdrop of COVID-19.
Sources told Moneycontrol that the rentals for the lease have been fixed at around Rs 115 per sq ft a month and that the agreement carries a rental reset clause every three years.
They said the property Embassy NXT has a total of ground plus 10 floors. It is located in the front parcel of Embassy Manyata campus and is a mixed-use development consisting of two Grade A office towers totalling 780,000 sq ft of leasable area.
“Fit-outs are in progress. The company is also in talks with other tenants and new companies,” sources told Moneycontrol.
The under-construction 353 keys 3-star Hilton Garden Inn and 266 keys 5-star Hilton hotel are adjacent to Embassy NXT. Embassy NXT is planned as an integrated destination and community, with premium commercial, hospitality and retail components.
Embassy Office Park CEO Michael Holland had said last month that while the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an uncertain near-term outlook for many businesses worldwide, “we are uniquely positioned to weather this pandemic-induced storm with our best-in-class office portfolio and strong balance sheet. While demand is likely to moderate considerably through 2020, we believe that in this environment, Grade-A supply will reduce considerably over the medium term, consolidation in the office market will continue and high-quality institutional landlords, such as Embassy REIT, will gain market share.”
On the issue of work-from-home, Holland had said that the general view is that it is competent but not comfortable.
"We are not worried about the WFH phenomenon, we think it is part of the normal evolution of this market as it becomes more sophisticated. We believe what will happen is that companies would want to be in high quality, less dense offices, in better environments that offer a total business ecosystem,” he had said.
Embassy Manyata Business Park is the flagship asset owned by Embassy Office Parks REIT, India’s first and only listed REIT. The Embassy REIT was listed in April 2019.
ANSR is a global leader in establishing and operating Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and have successfully led the establishment of some of the best managed GCCs and Centre of Excellence (CoE)s in India.
A proposed metro station is within 100 metres to Embassy NXT and a flyover with direct access to the Outer Ring Road is at its periphery.
Sponsored by Blackstone, the global alternative asset management giant, and Embassy Group, the Bengaluru-based developer, Embassy REIT owns 33 m sq ft of office space across seven Grade A office parks and four city-centre office buildings in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and the National Capital Region.
More than 80 percent of Embassy REITs’ tenants by area leased are global bellwethers such as IBM, JPMorgan, Facebook and Google.