A business group in the US named Vision India Real Estate is bankrolling a sum total of $5 million in an upcoming residential project in Chennai. The project belongs to Gem Group. This is the first time that the US Company is going for a joint development project. It is proposing an investment of $100 to $200 million (approx. Rs 920 crore) in the coming 3 years.

The company delegates was studying the market for previous 24 months and the entered India 2 years ago.

The company is in colaboration with Chennai-based Gem Group to build a Rs 320-crore project at Padur on Old Mahabalipuram Road. The company is thinking upon to develop logistics parks in Bangalore and Chennai, which will be spread over 47 acres each.

A special purpose vehicle has been floated for the purpose. The plan is proposed in such a manner that the Vision India would develop the residential projects on the land provided by Gem Group.

The concerned authorities said, “We have also initiated talks with retail houses, automobile majors, pharma companies and others”. Vision India Realty is a unified property development and asset management group that manages and also develops the hospitality residential facilities in India. It will also invest in some other projects as well.

Over the upcoming three years, Vision India Real Estate is planning to invest $100 to $200 million, as told by Mr Elad to ET. The company has set a target of $500-700 million (Rs 2,300-3,220 crore) turnover in the next three years.

Since the Chennai Market is much more stable than other cities therefore the initial focus will be on this for housing projects. It will touch the hospitality sector in the next year.

The progress reports by Ilan Elad say that about 40 million sq ft has been developed which includes about 5 million sq ft towards hospitality and about 15 million sq ft has been for residential segment.

A project called Gem Grove is planned to be built on 6.64 acres of land at Padur on the Old Mahabalipuram Road in Chennai. The project is a residential project of about 320 cr. It will accommodate 712 housing units covering a built-up area of approximately 8 lakh sq ft.

The chairperson of Gem Group R Veeramani complemented the decision to partner with Vision India saying that it is to tap their excellence in developing such projects in the US and Europe.
The projects by Gem Group are marketed by Homebay, starting at Rs 2,399 per sq ft.

It will set its 3 blocks ready for  occupancy by July 2012 with the remaining three blocks ready by May 2013.

The Sports City will have various Residential Districts which would be built by the company in phases. The first district will be the Country Homes, with sizes varying from 200 to 4000 sq mts. This will be followed by Lake District with high, mid and lower end apartments. The city will have features like uninterrupted water and electricity supply from Jaypee Group’s own power generation plants, round the clock 3 tier security, super specialty health facilities and educational facilities ranging from Kinder crib to professional levels.

For more details and booking please visit: http://www.propertywala.com/projects/560172

The plot of land, located at the entrance of the IT Park and adjoining the IT Highway, was originally acquired by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd (SIPCOT). It was handed over to the Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC) which develops the IT Highway also known as Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) or Rajiv Gandhi Salai on a 99-year lease for developing world-class facilities for the IT and ITES sector as well as the road users.

The TNRDC’s earlier efforts to identify a business partner for the project failed because all were far below the upset price of Rs 10 crore fixed by the company.

When the TNRDC floated a revised bid recently, Mantri offered to pay Rs 10.5 crore per acre and emerged successful. The TNRDC will hand over the land on a 75-year lease to Mantri for setting up a hotel four star or five star and an amenities centre with shopping mall and club house measuring roughly 6.5 lakh sq ft. The developer will be at liberty to identify a viable business proposition.

While sources in the TNRDC and Mantri refused to comment, it is learnt that the two firms are working towards the conclusion of the bid process. Mantri will have to make a one-time payment of Rs 51.45 crore for the plot of land. Mantri’s offer is more than double of what many IT companies have paid for acquiring land from SIPCOT in the Sirusseri park.

However, the commercial value of private properties along the IT Highway between Sholinganallur and Sirusseri range from Rs 15-20 crore per acre. Mantri is also developing a residential project Mantri Synergy at Padur on the IT Highway.

The builder is already promoting luxury and business hotels in Bangalore and Hyderabad and IT space in Bangalore and Pune. The group started by Sushil Mantri with a low capital of Rs 10 lakh in 1999 in Bangalore, has so far completed more than a dozen residential projects in Bangalore.

The company signed an MoU with the Special Area Development Authority, Gwalior, to carry out the project under public-private-partnership model, the company said in a statement.

As per the MoU, the realty firm would set up a Hi Tech city over an area of 2,000 acres, comprising 25,000 housing units.

The company has already acquired 375 acres for creating housing for the low and mid-income people.

Around 5,000 houses would be provided in this project and the developments work would be commissioned by October this year.

It is currently developing three new projects in Gwalior, consisting of residential, a shopping mall cum multiplex and commercial spaces.

It is true that hiring foreign designers and planners have many advantages. But, the negative side of hiring them is that in some cases they do not understand the complexities of doing business in India, including tax laws and also cultural consideration , feels Devinder Gupta of realty advisory Century 21 India.
In an interview, Niranjan Hiranandani, the managing director of the Hiranandani group says that there is a big difference in approach between Indian and foreign firms that undertake design jobs. He feels that international firms are more empathetic to developers’ needs and aspirations. “They find a solution which is required for a particular site, location and land. They are also more in tune with the land use demand,” says Hiranandani. “They are more open to new ideas. On the other hand, Indian firms have a trial and error approach to design and planning. They also try to impose their ideas on the developers.”

Singapore based firms like RSP Architects Planners and Architects 61 Ltd are also designing projects in many big cities in India and are serious of winning more projects here. RSP has reportedly opened their offices in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. It designed the international Tech Park in Bangalore.

It has also designed offices for IT giants like Wipro, Satyam and Microsoft. Devinder Gupta informs that legendry Unitech group has taken the services of great golfer Greg Norman to design the lush green golf course for their prestigious Unitech Grande project in Greater Noida. Clearly, the Indian realty firms are taking the services of foreign firms and experts to make their projects attractive.

Meanwhile, some Indian architects feel that global firms are definitely good when it comes to designing projects. But, they are critical of some of the mismatch. On many occasions, the initial designs done by them don’t make any sense. Finally, Indian architects have to enter the scene to undo the damage. CMD of Omaxe group, Rohtas Goyal says that with money starting to flow into Indian realty sector, it has become necessary to bring global architectural practices and expertise.

Moreover, customers fancy projects designed by overseas firms. From the developers’ point of view, it becomes a good marketing and sales proposition. It may be mentioned here that Omaxe has recently hired Indian Davis cup Star Leander Paes company to help them design the tennis courts in their residential projects. Those who follow the realty market of India feel that as competition hots up and properties get bigger, developers going to hire global architects to design their projects will become more frequent.

Moreover, builders are entrusting the design work for commercial projects and master planning of a mixed use developments to foreign firms.

It is also learnt that several developers choose foreign architects only for their large projects. Anil Sharma of Amrapali group said, “It is affordable to hire an international firm to master planning if there is a big volume of work. Time is never an issue with them. They keep their words”.
Meanwhile, there are some people in realty sector who feel that foreign firms will continue to win projects here, but they will be hired for a limited purpose. They would design the master plans of the projects, while the execution part would continue to be taken care by the Indian firms.

Last week, D S Kulkarni sold 50 % in a unit setting up a SEZ in Pune to GTC Cyprus for $90 million. Ahead of the announcement, DS Kulkarni shares ended at 95.30 rupees, up 2.2 % in a strong Mumbai market.

On 4th June S P Gon Choudhury, managing director of WBGEDCL said that the corporation would charge a insignificant fee for transferring the technology, but in future might was open to pick a equity as low as 2 % in the real estate projects seeking the technology.

S. Jain, joint managing director of the Siddha Group, said out of one hundred twenty apartments in the project, ten or so initially would be equipped with energy saving devices.
In addition to this clean technology, additional feature of this project will be general services like the eating area, club and gym.
Siddha Group would install solar thermal lightning system on a five hundred meter stretch between Xanadu and Siddha Pines, a new residential project by the group in the Rajarhat area.

Other features of the project included use of LED bulbs, solar home lighting system and rain water harvesting.

The Mumbai-based firm may need cash for developing a planned special economic zone in Maharashtra and townships in the future, but has enough cash for ongoing projects, Vice-Chairman Arun Nanda told analysts late on Tuesday.

The company has developed a 1,400-acre special economic zone (SEZ) in Chennai, while its second SEZ, spread over 3,000 acres at Jaipur, will start operations by July 2008.

“Chennai has started generating cash, while Jaipur is self sufficient. When we go to Maharashtra, we will need to look for funds,” he said.

The company has planned a 3,000-acre multi-product special economic zone at Karla, near Pune. While it has received approvals, land acquisition for the project may only start later this year, Nanda said.

“There is no intention for Mahindra group to dilute equity. At best, we might bring in some private equity,” Nanda told analysts. “We are a zero-debt at company level and currently hold cash reserves of 250 crores (2.5 billion rupees).”

The Mahindra group holds 51 percent equity in the company.

Last month, the company formed a joint venture with private equity fund ARCH Capital to develop a 55-acre township project, within its Chennai SEZ.

Mahindra Lifespace, which on Tuesday outlined an investment of 5 billion rupees for a 25-acre residential project in Nagpur, is also planning four other large integrated township projects. However, Nanda declined to give details of these projects.