Oneculture takes 1 lakh sq ft office space from Bhutani Infra in Noida to set up co-working centre

Co-working firm Oneculture has taken 1.06 lakh sq ft office space in Noida on lease from realty firm Bhutani Infra to open its fourth centre comprising 1,600 seats.

Oneculture has leased 1,06,640 sq ft office space in Bhutani Group commercial project 'Alphathum' in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, being constructed at an investment of about Rs 1,200 crore.

The co-working firm currently has two centres in Gurugram, Haryana with a total capacity of 1,300 seats and will open the third centre in the city in November having 700 seats. It offers space in the range of Rs 12,000-22,000 per seat per month, a senior company official said.

Bhutani Infra CEO Ashish Bhutani said the demand for office space in Noida and Greater Noida market is improving because of lower rentals compared to Gurugram.

In contrast to sluggish housing sector, India's office market has been performing well, driven by demand from corporates and co-working operators. Introduction of Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs) has also come as a major boost for this segment.

WeWork, Regus, CoWrks, Awfis, Smartworks, OYO Workspace, GoodWorks, GoWork, Skootr, IndiQube, Avanta, 91 Springboard, Creator's Gurukul, GoHive, Plus Offices and Spring House Coworking are major players in this segment.

Recently, Thailand-based real estate firm MQDC also entered this space by taking on lease 22,000 sq ft from realty major DLF to start its first co-working centre in the national capital.

Bhutani Infra is investing Rs 1,200 crore to develop this commercial project, comprising 45 lakh sq ft of built-up area, to tap into the rising demand for office space.

Of the total area, around 35 lakh sq ft is for office space and seven lakh sq ft for a shopping mall. Rest will have 500 studio apartments. Office towers are expected to be completed by year-end, while shopping mall and studio apartments are likely to be executed over the next two years.

The company has adopted both sale and lease model to monetise this project. The average selling price is Rs 8,000 per sq ft.

Bhutani Infra has so far completed about a dozen commercial projects in East Delhi as well as Ghaziabad and Noida.