Brigade Group to build World Trade Centre in Chennai at cost of over Rs 1000 crore

CHENNAI: Bengaluru-based Brigade Group, which holds licences to build World Trade Centers in five southern cities, will build its third WTC after Bengaluru and Kochi in Chennai, developing well over 2.5 million sq. ft of commercial and office space on the 16-acre land parcel it bought from Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd.

Brigade Enterprises and Kansai Nerolac today announced on the BSE that the purchase of land and buildings at a consideration of Rs 537.8 crore was done through a joint venture with GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. Brigade and GIC set up Perungudi Real Estate, a special purpose vehicle set up for the acquisition.

"Chennai's World Trade Centre will come up in the Perungudi land parcel we have bought. The project will come up at a cost over Rs 1,000 crore. The development will be led by the World Trade Centre," said Vishal Mirchandani, CEO-Retail and Commercial, at Brigade Enterprise told ET. Sources added that the development of commercial and offices spaces would total 2.5 million sq. ft.

The Bengaluru WTC was commissioned over four years back while a part of the one in Kochi is already operational. Brigade holds the licences to builds WTCs in Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram.

For GIC, this would be the first collaboration with Brigade on a World Trade Centre after one IT SEZ and a residential project near Bengaluru. The attraction for GIC Real Estate was also the "strong fundamentals of the Chennai market given its fast-growing economy and the healthy demand from the IT sector," according to Loh Wai Keong, MD and Co-head Asia, GIC Real Estate.