Lodha buys 8 acres in Mumbai’s Kurla for green digital infrastructure

1. Lodha buys 8 acres in Mumbai’s Kurla for green digital infrastructure

2. Realty developer Lodha Group, Bain Capital, and Ivanhoé Cambridge-backed Lodha Green Digital Infrastructure (LGDI) has acquired an over 8-acre land parcel in Mumbai’s Kurla locality. The land will be used for the development of over 4 lakhs sq ft of Grade-A multi-tenanted in-city fulfilment centre to provide the last-mile warehousing infrastructure to third party logistics (3PL), e-commerce, and quick-commerce companies. The development will involve a total investment of over Rs 330 crores and is expected to be completed in the next 12-18 months in phases. Earlier this year, Lodha, listed as Macrotech Developers, entered a partnership with Bain Capital and Ivanhoé Cambridge to develop a green digital infrastructure platform. This platform is looking to establish a pan-India presence in the digital infrastructure space including logistics and light industrial parks as well as in-city fulfilment centres. The platform has jointly invested $1 billion to create around 30 million sq ft of operating assets to serve India’s digital economy. “This will be the first institutional investment of scale in “in-city logistics asset” in Mumbai. We are focused to bring extensive experience in this asset class and dedicated resources to support the growth of this platform. We see that there is a huge demand for Grade-A digital infrastructure in our country and we are aligned with our aim to develop industrial and logistics parks as well in-city logistics assets across multiple cities in India,” said Shaishav Dharia, Director, Lodha Green Digital Infrastructure.

3. According to him, with such developments, there will be growth in logistics efficiency and creating job opportunities in different parts of the country. The company will focus on building and operating this digital infrastructure to the highest levels of environmental sustainability with the view to creating a global benchmark. This is the second asset acquired by the platform in Mumbai and it seeks to acquire more such assets in the city and other key consumption and manufacturing hubs across India like Pune, Bangalore, and the National Capital Region (NCR). The first project was around 110-acre logistics and industrial park development at Palava, an established location for digital infrastructure in Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Lodha is already developing around 300 acres of Industrial and Logistics Park near Navi Mumbai, which is almost completely leased out. The company had recently announced a joint venture with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI) to develop 72 acres at this logistics park. The park already houses global clients such as FM Logistic, Flyjac Logistics, Aptar Pharma. Industrial and warehousing segment has emerged as a high-growth real estate asset class, buoyed by rising consumer demand and accelerating manufacturing investment. The National Logistics Policy, announced recently by the government, is expected to give a further boost to investments in the sector.

4. Indian warehousing has been attracting interest from institutional investors, with more than $5 billion of funds being committed by private equity firms and pension funds such as CPPIB, Warburg Pincus and Ivanhoe Cambridge over the past five years. The sector is expected to record the highest ever absorption of warehousing this year due to the aggressive expansion of e-commerce and the growth of 3PL companies. The demand for warehousing has stood out in the last few quarters led by penetration of e-commerce and growth of third-party logistics in the middle of the ongoing pandemic scenario. A favourable regulatory backdrop along with the government’s support through policy and reforms are further expected to boost the infrastructure spend and in turn the overall demand for modern warehousing. The segment has become a key growth driver in real estate and expansion of the online retail sector has resulted in greater demand for warehousing, thereby resulting in higher investments in infrastructure and supply chain modernisation.