WeWork leases 1.9 lakh sq.ft. space at BKC to set up first Mumbai office

Mumbai: New York-headquartered WeWork has taken the entire 16-storey ENAM Sambhav building in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) on lease for a monthly rental of Rs4.3 crore, where it will provide shared working spaces for individuals, small businesses and entrepreneurs.

The deal for 190,000 sq. ft is the biggest office lease transaction in the last one year in Mumbai. The building is owned by ENAM Financial Consultants Pvt. Ltd.

The 10-year deal works out to a rent of nearly Rs230 per sq. ft per month on leasable area or built-up area, including parking space, lobbies and passages.

The BKC office will be the second India deal for Goldman Sachs and Fidelity Investments backed WeWork, which announced its entry into India last year

Juggy Marwaha, who is part of the leadership team at WeWork, confirmed the deal, adding the first flagship WeWork building will be launched this year in Bengaluru. “This will be soon followed by the launch of the Enam building, a 190,000 sq. ft stand alone marque building owned by the Enam Securities Group in Bandra Kurla Complex,” he said. Property advisor JLL India transacted the deal.

In November last year, WeWork had signed an operating agreement with commercial property developer Embassy Group to set up its office at Embassy Galaxy in Bengaluru. Spread across 140,000 sq. ft of office space, it has the capacity to house over 1,800 members.

The company is planning to launch both buildings by the middle of this year and the National Capital Region by the end of the year, Marwaha said.

According to tech market intelligence platform CB Insights, WeWork is worth around $16.9 billion, making it one of ten most valued start- ups globally. Some of its global investors include JP Morgan Chase, Harvard Management Company, Wellington Management, Hartford Funds Management, Legend Holdings and Hony Capital. Founded by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, the firm is present across 95 locations in 21 countries with over 70,000 members across the US, Europe and Asian countries like China and South Korea.

Marwaha, along with the 25-year-old Embassy Group scion, Karan Virwani and Nikhil Arora from WeWork Global are spearheading and leading WeWork India.

“Co-working as a workplace option is gathering momentum in several gateway cities globally, and increasingly, more corporations have started to realise that it offers a great potential for fostering innovation,” said Abhishek Tiwari, founder, CRE Matrix, a Mumbai-based real estate analytics firm.