Bengaluru: Real estate firm DLF Ltd has signed a 30,000 sq ft lease deal with Spaces, a brand of co-working space provider International Workplace Group (IWG) in the former’s business district Cybercity, Gurgaon. The developer is also talking to 2-3 operators to lease out another 25,000 sq ft for a second co-working centre in Cybercity, said company executives.
In an expansion mode, DLF is also adding around 2 million sq ft to Cybercity, Gurgaon. The business district, spread across 116 acres is around 15 million sq ft right now and has a development potential of 22 million sq ft.
“Co-working spaces brings in a new format and different energy in a business district like Cybercity which is why we have decided to allocate more than 50,000 sq ft of space for two such centers. We are in active discussion with co-working companies for the second space,” said Amit Grover, national director-offices, DLF Ltd said on the sidelines of a conference recently.
IWG, which is headquartered in Switzerland and listed on the London Stock Exchange, launched its Spaces brand with the co-working center in Cybercity.
“We are looking at expanding the Spaces brand aggressively across all major metros in India. After Gurgaon, we are looking at open a second Spaces center in Chennai,” said Harsh Lambah, country manager, IWG.
Co-working centres or shared workspaces have gained steam with a number of developers either partnering directly with global operators or leasing out space for the same. They offer new commercial tenancy models and encourage start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SME) to work from these centers.
Awfis Space Solutions, a start-up that provides shared workspaces and which recently raised $20 million from Sequoia Capital India is also planning rapid expansion.
The firm, which runs 21 centers with 7,500 seats, plans to increase it to 28 centers and 10,000 seats in the next two months.
“We are in five cities now and will expand to Kolkata and Chennai soon. There is a lot of demand for shared working space and the developer community is also realizing that there is a lot of demand-supply mismatch in quality office space,” said Amit Ramani, chief executive, Awfis.
Apart from Cybercity, Gurgaon, DLF is also expanding its Cybercity property in Chennai by another 1.6 million sq ft with an investment of around Rs500 crore.
‘We will also bring in the Cyber Hub, the fine dining and entertainment space which is there in Gurgaon, to Chennai,” said Grover.