Estancia's big plans for chennai real estate

It is his customers 'walk' to their destinations, offices, mall or school- that the P Suresh, 49, managing director, Arun Excello Infrastructure Pvt Ltd expects would propel him into the bigger real estate league. The Rs100-crore turnover group that sold over 1,000 residential apartments promoting 19 projects, is planning to double that number in a single project called Estancia. An integrated township project, it comprises an IT park, school, shopping mall, hotel and serviced apartments coming up at Vallencheri, on GST Road near Chennai. Undoubtedly, the Rs1,500 crore project on a 78-acre plot is a Hanuman jump for the group headed by this mechanical engineer from Guindy Engineering College, Chennai and an MTech from IIT, Kharagpur. All these years the group was promoting projects in the band of 3-4 acres

KG Green Meadows - Healthy living complex

KG Developers and Promoters, one of Chennai’s city’s early and leading property developers with over 10 million sft. of residential and commercial space to its credit today, announced that it is setting up the first gated community complex within the city limits. To be called KG Green Meadows, the project with a projected investment of INR 50 crores, will be a boon to health and lifestyle conscious citizens of Chennai. Green Meadows is slated to be the first of its kind healthy living complex centrally located in the heart of the city, with a unique Oxygen Parlour and numerous other lifestyle enriching amenities such as jogging track, reflexology pathway, meditation centers, steam, sauna, jacuzzi, gymnasium and swimming pool. KG Developers and Promoters have since acquired 4 acres in Velachery where the project will come up. The project is scheduled for completion by early 2008.

Budget hotels from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp. will set up 20 'Rail Ratna' brand budget hotels in the southern states and major hoteliers have already been awarded sites at several places for the venture, IRCTC Southern Region Manager K P Damodaran said today. Addressing a press conference here, Mr Damodaran said sites had already been awarded for the hotels at Ooty, Kanniyakumari, Madurai and Rameshwaram. Land would be handed over at Chennai Central, Trivandrum Central, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Calicut, Coimbatore and Mangalore for more hotles, he said. Mr Damodaran said that since taking over the catering in Southern Railway in November, 2005, the IRCTC had set up 13 modern food plazas at major stations including Trivandrum, Ernakulam, Chennai and Bangalore. Ten more food courts were being planned, including at Kollam, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Mangalore, Erode and Tirunelvelli. To provide hygienic and wholesome food to railway passengers and visitors to the stations, major base kitchens would be set up at Trivandrum, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Erode, Madurai and Chennai, he said.

Land Scam in chennai

A man, who allegedly sold the same piece of land to 15 people and collected Rs 1.95 crore, was arrested by the police on Tuesday. Following two complaints received from Sujatha Mathew and S Radhakrishnan of Mogappair, Commissioner of Police Letika Saran directed the Central Crime Branch police to register a case. Investigations revealed that V Sankaran (39) of Villivakkam N.R.N Colony had a general power of attorney for a vacant site measuring 3,600 square feet in West End Colony, Mogappair. He allegedly sold the land to 15 people in three different batches and received Rs 1.95 crore out of the sale. Apartment He had also entered into an agreement with them to build an apartment on the land, but had not kept the commitment. Investigating officers said that a case of cheating among others had been registered against Sankaran. He was produced before a city court, which remanded him to judicial custody. Further investigation is on.

Quick disposal of registered documents

The State Government on Monday announced the "Samadhan Scheme" for quick disposal of registered documents pending determination of correct market value. People whose documents are pending with various sub-registrar offices can get their documents by paying 60 per cent of the difference in stamp duty between market value fixed by the respective sub-registrar and the amount remitted by the parties concerned. The new scheme will come into effect from April 24 and will be available till June 23.

Zak India Property Expo 2007 - April 26 to 29

Prospective homeowners will find most of what they need at one spot next week. Zak India Property Expo 2007, being held at the Chennai Trade Centre from April 26 to 29, will be accompanied by partner exhibitions, BuildTech and InteriorExterior Expo. "For a person who wants to build a house, he needs the latest technology in building materials, he needs the property... and then at the end of the process, he needs accessories for the interiors," said Syed Zakir Ahmed, chairman and managing director of Zak Trade Fairs and Exhibitions. Thirty developers will showcase 300 properties in Chennai and other cities, with prices ranging from Rs. 3,500 to Rs. 20,000 per square foot for commercial projects and Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 7,000 for residential projects. Mr. Ahmed expects 1.45 lakh people to visit the exhibitions, which will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and have a single entry ticket costing Rs. 30. A legal advice booth, with independent advisers, will help visitors understand the jargon of the construction world and offer advice on legal documents. "People get confused... What is plinth area and what is carpet area? We don't want anyone to get cheated," he said. G.R.K. Reddy, managing director of MARG Constructions, one of the sponsors, feels that townships can be one of the buzzwords at the fair, which is being held during a boom phase in Chennai's property market. "Real estate prices are on a high because there is less supply and more demand. But houses take time to build. A lot of townships are coming up... In 18-24 months, 30,000 to 40,000 homes are coming up [in these townships], and they will meet the demand. Prices will go down."

GDES ready to start its new facility in Chennai

Construction is complete on a 37,000-square foot, $1.6 million off-shoring facility in Chennai, India, which will house up to 500 employees, officials at Dallas-based GDES announced today. The new building is home to GDES' flagship offering, Global Workforce Solutions™, which provides companies direct access to a low cost, highly educated workforce in India providing up to a 60 percent savings in operational costs, a rarity in an industry that has historically shied away from providing quantifiable savings. Construction of the Class A facility, located in India's fourth largest city and home to major multi-national companies like Ford, BMW, Hyundai, World Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia, was overseen by India-based contractor ETL Infrastructure Services. The facility includes employee-friendly features not commonly seen by most traditional offshore facilities. In-house cafeteria, restaurants, retail outlets, medical facilities, fitness and recreational facilities, large lawns, open outdoor sitting areas and natural trees lining the facility are some of the aesthetics to be enjoyed by GDES employees. (Click here for details) International design of new building lobby"We are very pleased to open our Chennai facility as a satellite office for North American companies who are looking to establish a global workforce to take advantage of low cost labor without worrying about many of the negative attributes associated with traditional outsourcing," said GDES CEO Steve Clemons. "Because we provide our customers complete transparency into our cost structure, complete flexibility to change their processes without having to negotiate the contract, and complete control over their work content, we are able to directly deliver significant savings to our customers." GDES' Global Workforce Solutions offers an alternative to traditional outsourcing by providing companies with a facility to process work such as document scanning, data entry, x-ray analysis, or any process that can be done anywhere in the world as long as someone has a computer and internet connection, are conducted by specially trained employees that report directly to an onsite company representative. By accessing GDES' infrastructure, companies save the time and resources that would otherwise be spent in a foreign country working legal, tax, real estate, HR and cultural issues to establish their own facility. In addition to housing the necessary equipment, computers, and services, the GDES Chennai facility is a full service office complex with a planned hotel on campus and 24 hour-a-day office access. Complete with scalable options, the facility's floor space is designed with North American companies' expectations for quality and scale. Over the past decade, Chennai has grown into one of India's major off-shoring marketplaces due to its highly educated workforce, cost of labor and generous tax structure. The cost of skilled labor in Chennai is approximately 15-20 percent lower compared to Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. GDES' facility is also located in a Special Economic Zone (SEZs). SEZs are exempt from state and central government taxes and import duties on equipment and technology in order to attract investment. These cost savings are ultimately passed on to GDES customers. The facility is located 30 minutes away from the Chennai International Airport. Chennai is also home to South India's only US consulate. "Because our offering calls for a team leader of North American companies to be located in Chennai, it was important for us to build out a facility that included many of the features the American workforce has come accustomed to, and go beyond that by providing access to a quality American international school, the US consulate, and other amenities that will ensure a smooth transition period."

ETA Star Property Developers looks for partners

Chennai's ETA Star Property Developers Limited, part of $4 billion turnover ETA Ascon group based in Dubai, is holding discussions with two US and two European investors to offload an approximately 40-per cent stake. The stake sale will help finance its real estate development projects in the pipeline. The Tamil Nadu Industrial Corporation Limited holds a 0.1-per cent in ETA Star, with the balance being held by the promoters. According to managing director P H M Syed Ismail, the company needs funds mainly to execute its proposed Rs12,000-crore integrated township project at Sriperumbudur near Chennai. "The project will be spread over 1,200 acres. Already we have 250 acre and the balance is in the process of acquisition." He hopes to complete the land acquisition process in six months, while the the entire infrastructure is scheduled for completion in one and a half years. "After that it will take around seven years for us to complete the entire township project. We can construct five-crore square feet." At the launch of the company's first residential apartment project in Chennai, Jasmine Court, Ismail said, the 4.4 acre residential complex will have six individual blocks of four floors with 219 apartments, with a total built up area of 2.87-lakh sq.ft. The two- and three-bedroom apartments are spread over between 1,100 and 1,557 sq.ft. "The launch price is Rs2,990 per sq.ft," he said. The company is developing the property in partnership with Baashyam Constructions P Ltd, Chennai. Earlier ETA Star had built the Binny Crescent and The Gardens residential complexes in Bangalore, where the ETA group had invested in the 70-acre plot that had belonged to the erstwhile Binny Limited, at Binnypet. "We will develop Bangalore City Centre, a 7-lakh sq.ft shopping mall and the ETA Star Innovative Film City, a 5.5-lakh sq.ft villas and apartment complex in Bidadi near Bangalore. In Chennai, ETA Star is mainly involved in development of commercial properties like shopping malls and IT parks, and the Jasmine Court marks its entry into the city's residential property market. This will be followed by 6.3 lakh sq.ft residential cum serviced apartment complex in Padur on the Old Mahabalipuram Road; an ultra premium apartment complex in Greenways Road, Chennai proper and 64 luxury villas spread over 17 acres at the junction of the Old Mahabalipuram Road and East Coast Road. The company is developing a 27-lakh sq.ft IT park on the Old Mahabalipuram Road called ETA Techno Park. "The total project cost of Rs600 crore. We have completed 3 lakh sq.ft and has leased out to HCL Technologies. Another 3 lakh sq.ft is in the process of construction for the same client," Ismail said. The company will also build a shopping mall at the site of the landmark Anand Theatre on the Anna Salai, Chennai, which will soon face the demolition squad. The one notable shopping mall built by ETA Star in Chennai is the Chennai Citi Centre. However it has attracted the municipal authorities' attention for some deviations from the approved plans. "The deviation is very miniscule and in six months time it will be set right," asserts Ismail. The company says ETA Star has real estate projects worth Rs1,100 coming up on 45 acres in Chennai. It also says that it has Rs2,000 crore worth of real estate development projects in other parts of the country. In Mumbai, ETA Star has set up a 50:50 joint venture in partnership with Supra Estates to develop 10-lakh sq. ft, of which 7-lakh would be for residential and the remaining for a 3-lakh shopping mall in Juhu. The project will start in four months time. ETA Star is also involved in developing 63 acre near Mumbai. "The project will be developed into a health resort with a 5-star hotel, spa and other facilities," Ismail adds. ETA Star's parent, ETA Star Property Developers LLC, Dubai, has launched over five-million sq.ft of premium properties in Dubai and the Northern Emirates. The company also has plans to develop another four-million sq. ft of commercial, residential and hospitality projects in Business Bay, Arabian Bay, International Media Production Zone, Dubai, Internet & Media City, a luxury resort & spa in the Jumeirah Palm Crescent in the Middle East.

Chennai Port plans for using its prime land

The Chennai Port is planning an innovative method to generate revenue from a part of the 600 acres of prime sea-facing land that it owns. On the cards are a mall, multiplex and sea-facing restaurants that will be a first in the country, reports CNBC-TV18. The Chennai Port could soon stop being limited to only shipping, but may also become a shoppers attraction. The port authorities want to develop a one-lakh sq ft plot of land into a mall, which will cater to both locals and international passengers arriving on cruise ships. "Looking at the potential, we thought we should have an international standard passenger terminal with all facilities of shopping and hotels and other things also,” says K Suresh, Chairman, Chennai Port Trust. The mall is going to be part of a large multi-level parking facility that the port plans to develop on three acres of land worth an estimated Rs 500 crore, which would have otherwise gone un-monetised.The multi-level car park is something the port needs desperately, considering it exports about 1.1 lakh cars a year and uses almost 30 acres of valuable quay space to park them. The car park and mall are expected to generate at least Rs 300 crore a year. "While promoting exports, we normally allow a 30-day free time for the cars; that free time and multi-level car park would not give us the revenue that we are looking for so that how the idea of having a shopping mall and hotel and entertainment facilities will come up" feels Suresh. With the real estate prices in Chennai having doubled in the last two years and over 600 acres of port land available, this could be a great revenue source. So if the Chennai Port Authority is successful in developing a part of its water front property into an entertainment district, then it could be a fantastic revenue earning exercise that other port cities around the country could try, especially land-starved Mumbai.

AIG Global Real Estate and the RMZ Corp. to develop Real Estate space

AIG Global Real Estate and the Bangalore based RMZ Corp., real estate development company will float an equal joint venture to develop commercial and office space in key cities across India. The proposed venture will also look at the hospitality sector tying up with some international hotel chain. According to RMZ Corp managing director Raj Menda, the alliance will help us in achieving our long-term goals in terms of capital investment and financial support. The company recently acquired 11-acre plot in Chennai for Rs298.10 crore and has plans to develop the same as office space (1.5 million sq.ft). The land was owned by Hindustan Teleprinters Limited belonging to Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited. Speaking about the joint venture, AIG's country head and chief executive officer Sunil Mehta, said, "We believe that AIG Global Real Estate is well positioned to realize and capitalize on the opportunities that exist in the Indian market. The joint venture would reinforce AIG's commitment as a long term financial player across all asset classes in India." The five-year old RMZ Corp has plans to set up three joint ventures, one each for retail, residential and hospitality and office spaces. Currently present in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune RMZ Corp will be expanding its operations to Mysore, Mangalore, Coimbatore, Kochi and Nagpur.

Land grabbing scam in Chennai !!!

Here goes a NDTV report A central government owned funding agency, in collusion with land grabbers, is allegedly auctioning the locked properties in prime areas of Chennai. Indira is shattered. Although she lives in Bangalore she owns a beautiful house in Chennai as well. The property had remained locked for many years. But recently it was auctioned and quickly demolished, all without her knowledge. It's only when her neighbours got in touch with her did she get wind of this crime. Indira filed a petition under the RTI Act which revealed that a government owned funding agency called IREDA was behind the this. By dubious means the agency had cited Indira's unoccupied property as an asset of a defaulter who owes it Rs 1.5 crore and had obtained an order from a debt recovery tribunal in Delhi to auction the property to recover these dues. "I've no idea who they are, which company they run or how much have they've borrowed," said Indira, victim of land grabbing. Experts say this a devious method being adopted by funding agencies to recover bad debts, all in collusion with land grabbers and even allegedly the debt recovery tribunal. In this case the recovery officer had done nothing to ascertain the real owner of the property. And now the Madras High Court has ordered a probe by the CBI. "The property which is worth more than two crore rupees has been sold for sixty five lakh rupees. So there is some beneficiary. The IREDA must have received only sixty-five lakhs," said R Suresh, Asset Management Expert. "Despite the notice they have proceeded and have confirmed the sale. They ought to have stopped," said R Subramanian, advocate. Despite the best efforts by NDTV, IREDA officials refused to come on line. Its a wake up call for all those who own property that remains locked for some reason. Land grabbers are on the prowl and your property may be up for sale, whether you like it or not.

Rs. 257 crores deal finalised for Shankar Hospital, Chennai

Hyderabad based Global Hospitals has acquired the 450-bed Shankar Hospital, Chennai after it bagged the bid for Rs.257 crores in the office of the Chief Justice of Madras High Court on Monday. Announcing this at a press conference here on Tuesday, K. Ravindranath, chairman, Global Hospitals, said the multi-speciality Chennai hospital located in 46 acres would be converted into a health city with 500 beds, 50 to be offered free of cost. A press release said Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Charitable Trust could not operate the Chennai Hospital any longer as it had become heavily indebted. Also it could not establish a medical college. Therefore it was compelled to sell the property. The release quoted T. R. Rajagopalan, counsel for the trust, as having told the court that it was interested in keeping the hospital functional as a medical hub for the area and its neighbourhood. Hence it would accept the Global Hospitals' offer. Dr. Ravindranath said Rs.1,000 crore would be invested in five-ten years in the Chennai hospital to make it a centre of excellence in each speciality. It would have a neuro, transplant and elderly care centres, a hotel, service apartments besides floors for Indian and foreign patients. It would be fully operational by the year-end.

Tatas enter realty foray

For Ratan Tata it is now time to do a realty check. Tata Sons, the group holding company gave a go ahead to the real estate strategy for the entire group. The realty foray will be through two main vehicles, Tata Housing and Development Corporation (THDC) and the recently launched Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd (TRIL). TRIL will launch a Mauritius-based $1 billion realty fund where Tata Sons will put in Rs 800 - Rs 900 crore as equity in tranches. Initially, the fund itself will have a smaller corpus of $750 million where Tata Sons will put in 15 per cent or around $100 million. Negotiations for funds Sources in Tata Sons say that the group is in advanced negotiations with a clutch of financial investors like PE funds Carlyle and Warburg Pincus, who are keen to chip in as co-investors. Talks are also in the last leg with Macquarie Bank, Citigroup and a consortium of Japanese banks. Sources in Bombay House say that initially the plan is to try and develop the real estate assets that currently exist within the group. Group companies like VSNL, Tata Chemicals, Tata Tea, Tata Power and Voltas have assets across metros and Tier I cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune. The focus will be to monetise these assets in the beginning into commercial, office spaces and residential complexes. Besides, even though the group companies will not get big consessions, they will enjoy a first right of refusal. Banking on land Valuation of the group's total real estate assets is estimated at a whopping Rs 15,000 crore. In phase I, 150-300 acres will be developed in the metros. "We are evaluating what to do with our real estate. We have some plans," said Prasad Menon, MD, Tata Power. Tata Housing, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Sons will be the nodal agency for most of the realty development. Currently, THDC is developing eight townships across India, investing Rs 1,500 crore over two years.