Tata Group’s digital business entity Tata Digital has entered into an agreement with charitable trust Dawat E-Hadiyah to renew the lease for its headquarters iconic Fort House in South Mumbai’s Fort locality for a total term of three years.
The technology company that controls Bigbasket, Tata 1mg, Tata Cliq, Croma, and superapp Tata Neu among others will be paying rentals of nearly Rs 3 crore per month as per the agreement that stipulates lock-in period of one year.
The charitable trust of Dawoodi Bohra community had acquired Fort House from Videocon Group in 2017. The prime property with total 1.50 lakh sq ft office space on DN Road of South Mumbai was then sold for around Rs 300 crore.
The Tata Group company’s lease term started from April 1 and the deal was registered on May 16, showed the documents accessed through FloorTap.com.
The company, which focuses on creating consumer-centric and high-engagement digital products, has paid a security deposit worth over Rs 15 crore at the time of registration. The Grade-A commercial building comprises six floors with ground and basement.
The deal assumes significance as the transaction is for the entire building in a micro-market that usually does not offer an opportunity like this both on lease and outright basis.
ET’s email query to Tata Digital and Dawat E-Hadiyah remained unanswered until the time of going to press.
In one of the rare outright transactions to be concluded in South Mumbai for an entire building, the family of construction tycoon and billionaire Pallonji Mistry had bought Turner Morrison Building in Fort’s Kala Ghoda locality in 2019.
The century-old building was then sold by its owner Kolkata-based company Turner Morrison for around Rs 150 crore. The ground plus four storey building has a total area of 54,000 sq ft built up space.
The micro-market known for its Victorian Gothic architecture and structures that remind of the British era has not witnessed many such transactions and even a large lease deal in 2016 had surprised many.
In 2016, in the largest ever space transaction by any international retailer on high streets across the country, Spanish fashion chain Zara had leased 50,000 sq ft carpet space in South Mumbai’s most prime location of Flora Fountain, close to Fort House.
The world’s biggest fashion retailer had leased the space on the ground floor of Ismail Building diagonally opposite HSBC’s India head office located here.
