Scarcity of office space in Colombo
There is a major scarcity of office space in Sri Lanka where the demand is more for 1000 - 2500 square feet and this is where Ekroma wants to fill that void, said Ekroma's Managing Director Onesh Subasinghe at the launch of Ekroma Fortune Commercial space launch held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel last week.
State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene, the chief guest launched a 3D walkthrough of the building, followed by launching of the website by the project consultant.
Mr. Subasinghe said that while many property developers were looking at residential space Ekroma was focusing its attention on office space to fill that gap.
"We are launching the first office space buildings where we have 10 floors to be given out on a lease basis while five floors will be given out on a lot basis or sold outright. We want to create value for our customers," he said.
Ekroma Fortune is a pioneer to sell office space on the lot system in the country. Globally commercial space is valued at 20 per cent more than residential space and in real estate the location is the key.
"We have got a fantastic location with Viharamahadevi Park, the Beira Lake and the Indian ocean on both sides.”
He said the new building is ideal as it is in close proximity to railway and the bus stations where 70 per cent of the working class use public transportation today.
The project will be completed in a year and a half and parking space will be available for every 1000 square feet. "We have three more projects in the pipeline and invite the public to invest in Ekroma Fortune to make a fortune," he said.
Ekroma Fortune was established in 2015 by Onesh Subasinghe who diversified his portfolio to real estate. His family was in the agriculture business for 40 years and was successful. Athula Amarasekera, architect of the Ekroma Fortune Commercial Space, said it will be an iconic building complex, the first of its kind with 15 floors to be sold as office space in the country.
He said Colombo will be a global city with several iconic buildings coming up by 2020 and is going to be a vibrant international city such as Sydney or any other developed cities in the world.
In this venture, Ekroma Fortune has introduced the concept of selling "lots" while allowing flexibility for full floor purchases. The office space will spiral upwards 15 storied high with a built up area of 153,000 sq feet with state of the art air conditioning ,high speed elevators.