Global firms head to BKC

Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Amazon have taken large spaces on lease in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), underscoring that Mumbai’s business hub is becoming a favourite with global companies, according to a source in the know.

Bain & Company and Amazon already have offices in BKC. Bain & Company took 37,000 square feet in Capital Building at a rent of ~236 per square feet, which was to increase at 5 per cent a year, said the source quoted above.

Bain & Company took 23,141 square feet in the same building in 2012 at ~260 per square feet, according to data analytics firm Propstack.

Bain & Company has offices in Gurugram and Bengaluru also. “We do not comment on questions associated with the firm’s leasing agreements,” a Bain & Company spokesperson said. US-based management consultancy Boston Consulting Group took 20,000 square feet in Maker Maxity at ~350 per square feet. Maker Maxity is owned by Maker Group and Reliance Industries and is home to Canada's CPPIB, Singapore-based GIC and Macquarie, among others. The rents there are some of the highest in Mumbai. According to its website, BCG has offices at Nariman Point in Mumbai, DLF Cybercity in Gurgaon, and Hyatt Regency in Chennai.

An email sent to BCG did not elicit any response.

US-based e-commerce player Amazon also took 40,000 square feet in Godrej One, a plush building owned by Godrej Properties and Jet Airways, at ~170 per square feet. In 2016, Amazon leased 30,000 square feet at One BKC in the same area.

Amazon has leased office spaces in Gurugram, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Amazon has more than 1 million square feet of the leased space in the country now. BKC continues to be the most sought-after micro market for BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance) clients and recent transactions by Bain & Company and BCG are proof of this demand, said Raja Seetharaman, co-founder and director at Propstack.