Real estate firms game for sports-themed complexes

The model offers homes with sports facilities like race tracks.

Real estate projects with “sports” as theme appear to be catching on with Indian developers. Under this model, borrowed from the West, companies offer homes surrounded by sports facilities like race tracks, cricket stadium and lawn tennis courts. And, the pricing is fairly competitive.

Jaypee Sports City, coming up in Greater Noida on 2,500 acres, is one such project. The city, being built by Jaypee Greens, boasts a cricket stadium, a go-karting facility and an international standard motor race track, covering 875 acres.

While the company has earmarked 700 acres for residential development and 300 acres for commercial and institutional development, the remaining 625 acres will just have greenery.

Launched in November last year, the company claims that it has seen good traction. Around 70 per cent residential plots and 50 per cent apartments have been sold.

“Jaypee Sports City has been conceptualised as an integrated city, where one gets everything that he dreams of in his neighbourhood,” said Manu Goswamy, head, sales & marketing, Jaypee Greens.

“Jaypee Sports City is a huge project which will be developed in various phases. It is difficult to give the finishing date. We will be able to start the delivery of the first phase (launched inventory) from 2011.”

The residential plots are 153-538 sq yard each and priced at Rs 18,000 per sq yard. While 850-1,800 sq ft (high-rise apartments) flats will be priced at Rs 2,450 per sq ft, 1,600-2,100 sq ft (low-rise apartments) houses will be sold at Rs 2,850 per sq ft.

Emaar-MGF, a real estate major, is also building 1,168 apartments (34 towers) in Commonwealth Games Village in New Delhi. “We have been awarded the work for development of the 27.2-acre residential complex, part of the over 100-acre Commonwealth Games Village 2010 complex. This is one of the most prestigious projects being undertaken by the company,” said a company spokesperson.

Another sports project is “US Open Apartments” in Mulund, Mumbai. The project, being build by Nirmal Lifestyle, will have amenities like spa, a fitness centre, sports clubs, lawn tennis courts, a baseball court, a swimming pool, and badminton courts, over 75,000 sq ft out of the 5,00,000 sq ft that will be developed. The company has tied up with US Open for this project.

“We wanted to bring the concept of health and fitness into the country. Today, many parents want their kids to be sportspersons and if we offer them different stadiums in the complex, the project becomes appealing to them,” said Dharmesh Jain, chairman and managing director, Nirmal Lifestyle.

The US Open apartments will have two- to five-bedroom houses and the project is likely to be completed in the next four years. “We have seen a lot of enquiries from customers and we expect it to be a successful venture.”

Nitesh Estate of Bangalore has built a series of sports-themed residential complexes — Nitesh Wimbledon Park, Nitesh Flushing Meadows, Nitesh Roland Garros and Nitesh Wimbledon Gardens.

According to real estate consultants, there is a market for residential and commercial complexes based on the sports theme. “These concepts are quite common in the West. There is a definite market for this in India,” said Ravi Ahuja, executive director, project marketing development services, Cushman & Wakefield India. However, he expressed doubts if developers would deliver all that they had promised to customers.