Heavyweights of realty industry launch separate arm for co-working office business

Many real estate companies are launching separate companies or divisions within their companies, to launch co-working offices. Here’s a look at the businesses of 3 such companies

The fast emerging scenario for shared offices in the country is drawing attention of large real estate players in the country that are joining the co-working office band wagon, either on their own or by joining hands with other partners. These well-established real estate companies have been in the business for a long while and have some noticeable commercial projects in their portfolio, but it is the co-working space that they want a slice of.

Real estate biggies like RMZ Corp, Embassy Group and K Raheja Group, have come out with a different brand and a dedicated division in their companies just for launching shared office spaces. We take a look at the model, existing size and expansion plans of the three:

 

1. RMZ Corp-CoWrks

CoWrks is fast setting up co-working office centers across the country. It is an arm of the RMZ Corp, which has significant real estate operations in Bengaluru and other south Indian cities. Siddharth Menda, the scion of the Menda family that owns RMZ Group, has founded CoWrks and is spearheading the expansion of the shared office business. The company is expanding fast. CoWrks has about 14-15 centres in five metropolitans with a total of 15,000 seats in around 1.5 million sq ft area. CoWrks is aiming at owning 70-80 centres with about 65,000 seats, in about 6 million sq ft of area.

 

2. Embassy Group-WeWork

Real estate biggie Embassy Group has entered the co-working office business in a big way and joined hands with US-based company WeWork to launch several shared office centers in the country. The arrangement between Embassy Group and WeWork of US is the same that global hospitality brands have with Indian real estate developers-WeWork pays a management fee to the Embassy Group for the co-working business. Design, technology and training knowhow is provided by the US partner to Embassy Group for running the centres. WeWork India has a significant presence in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai and has plans to set up its centers in Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai in the near future.

 

3. K Raheja Group-The Space

K Raheja Group, which has a fair number of real estate projects in Maharashtra, has formed a joint venture (JV) with private equity firm Matrix Partners, to launch ‘The Space’ brand dedicated just for co-working spaces. The JV’s centre in Powai, Mumbai, provides seats to 3-to-6 member start-up firms. The centre can accommodate eight such firms at a time for a maximum three months. Then the cycle will be rotated and another set of eight firms would be given a chance. The Space too, has aggressive expansion plans.

 

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