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After the initial enthusiasm, corporate and retail parks with large space of average 12000-15000 sq ft have not found many takers in Ahmedabad. This, after almost over an year since Ahmedabad began going the Bangalore way with large spaced corporate and retail parks.
In recent times, Ahmedabad has seen a rise in number of corporate parks that offer individual office or retail space in sizes of 5,000 sq ft to even 12,000-15,000 sq ft. While the conventional office space is sized around 1,000-2,000 sq ft and suited for 40-50 employees, the large sized offices in corporate parks are suited for larger employee base of over 100.
However, due to high rentals and capital values, vacancy levels at corporate and retail parks have been ranging at as high as 60 per cent.
"Investors have bought space at the retail parks. But out of 16-odd units, only 6 are functioning. This is mostly because end users find rentals high for large spaced retail parks," said an official at HN Safal Group on condition of anonymity. The group has developed Mondeal Retail Park and Mondeal Business Park on SG Highway. However, in terms of sales, the developer has sold out all of its 50-odd units.
Initially, as many as 15-20 corporate park schemes have mushroomed in Ahmedabad in past 8-12 months. Demand was also being seen from sectors such as Information Technology (IT), corporate banking, financial and insurance services that form major part of the clientele for large spaced corporate and retail parks in other major cities like Mumbai and Bangalore.
According to industry experts, non-sustainability in terms of dwindling footfalls amidst negative market sentiments have also led to dip in occupancy rates.
"Negative business sentiments and high capital values have also played their role in deterring end users from occupying spaces in retail and corporate parks," said Neeraj Tomar, head Ahmedabad operations at Jones Lang LaSalle India (JLL).
Apart from HN Safal Group's Mondeal Retail Park and Mondeal Business Park on SG Highway, the other corporate parks have come up by developers such as Solitaire, Magnet and Shivalik, among others.
