City-based builder plans Rs 500cr township

Goldengate Properties, a Bangalore-based realty developer, launched Commune — a Rs 500-crore self-contai-ned residential township — in Hyderabad today. The company launched its first Commune project in Bangalore in August 2008.

Coming up on 30 acres near Tellapur close to Technocity, the project comprises 3,500 apartments with two-bedroom, three-bedroom and duplex options. The price starts from Rs 19.9 lakh for a living space of 960 sft.

“Construction work on the project, to be developed in phases, will commence in January 2009 and the first phase comprising 1,000 apartments will be completed in 15 months from then. The entire project is expected to be ready in 48 months,” K Pratap, managing director of Goldgate Properties, told mediapersons here.

The Deutsche Bank group and City Bank have invested $170 million in the firm, which could help fund the project. Goldengate, however, will weigh various options including divesting its equity further or floating a new company to fund its future ventures, he added.

Having completed 11 projects, including nine residential and two commercial, with a total built-up area of 1.7 million sft in Bangalore and Hyderabad, the 11-year-old company is now looking at spreading its horizons to other cities. It has a land bank of 100 acre in Hyderabad, 300 acre in Bangalore and 50 acre each in Mangalore and Mysore.

“In the next one year, we will be taking up 10 Commune projects in Bangalore, Mangalore, Mysore, Chennai, Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam enclosing around 35,000 apartments with the built-up area exceeding 5 million sft,” Pratap said.