India to get International Quality Office Space
By agencies   |   Wednesday, 06 September 2006, 19:30 IST
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HYDERABAD: A wholly owned subsidiary of India-based ICICI Bank Ltd, ICICI Venture has formed a partnership with Tishman Speyer Properties. The Tishman Speyer owners of the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, has closed its first deal in India, eying to have $100 million in office space. Tishman Speyer and ICICI looked at seven major cities in India to finally decide on the land to develop for office tenants. The partners hope to move forward and launch many projects in the near future. Tishman Speyer plans to develop buildings in 1.5 million square feet of space in Hyderabad, a special economic zone. The reason behind the venture is to provide their tenants with deals such as exemption from paying income tax. The partners chose Hyderabad after a year, finding the state of Andhra Pradesh more friendly towards entrepreneurs. Even on the business front it looked friendly as U.S. companies Microsoft Corp. and CA Inc., formerly known as Computer Associates have already established their company offices. According to the Tishman Speyer executives they are already handling requests for the India space from tenants in their U.S. office buildings. "International-quality office space is still very scarce in India," said Katherine Farley, a senior managing director of Tishman Speyer. To make the buildings appealing, Tishman Speyer has hired reputed architects Pei Cobb Freed & Partners LLP. They are the designers responsible for the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., to the renovation and expansion of the Louver in Paris. The developers expect to break ground on the 12-acre site by 2007 and complete the first of the two buildings by 2009.

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