Global banking major Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) has put its iconic independent commercial building on Rajaji Salai in Chennai on the block. The development comes just days after it put up its three-storey, neoclassical art deco independent commercial building at Fort’s Horniman circle in South Mumbai for sale.
Commercial real estate service provider CBRE had put out a newspaper advertisement for the sale of a prime property in Parrys, Chennai, owned by a multi-national bank for sale, without mentioning the name of the seller. But sources privy to the development confirmed to BusinessLine that the property for sale is indeed HSBC’s iconic Rajaji Salai building.
Old facade retained
Built in the English Renaissance-style, the four-storey building, earlier known as the Mercantile Bank building, is a classic example of colonial bank architecture of the early 1920s. The erstwhile Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, which began business in Madras in 1854, was renamed as the Mercantile Bank of India in 1893 and it moved into the current building on Firstline beach road (now Rajaji Salai) in 1923. In 1959, HSBC bought the Mercantile Bank but retained the old facade.
The CBRE advertisement said the standalone commercial building has a super built-up area of 41,340 sq ft with a land area of 15,441 sq ft, and the building is ready for moving in with fit-outs.
“The plan is to conclude the sale transaction before the end of this financial year and the property is expected to fetch more than ₹25 crore,” the source cited above said.
Besides Rajaji Salai, HSBC also has a multi-storey building on Cathedral Road and a Global Service Centre (GSC) in Perungudi.
HSBC declined to comment on this story. A message sent to the CBRE South Asia spokesperson did not receive any response till the time of going to press. The commercial real estate service provider is the transaction advisor for the Mumbai property as well.
Prior to this, HSBC sold its land parcel spread over 1.4 acres next to Doordarshan Tower in Mumbai’s Worli locality to K Raheja Corp in 2015 for ₹230 crore. In 2011, in what was then considered among expensive real estate deals, HSBC sold Bishopsgate, a five-storey residential building in upscale Breach Candy, for ₹272 crore to Ashok Piramal Group-owned Peninsula Land. Bishopsgate was co-owned by Standard Chartered.