C&W augments Kolkata realty operations

Cushman & Wakefield, the world’s largest privately held commercial real estate services firm, has strategically augmented Kolkata operations as they acquired the entire team of Lemongrass Advisors, a well-respected real estate consultancy firm in Kolkata and Eastern India.  

Abhijit Das, who was the former founder and managing director of Lemongrass Advisors, will be leading the Kolkata operations as the new Office Director for East. 

Sanjay Dutt Executive Managing Director, South Asia, Cushman & Wakefield said, “This talent acquisition will be crucial in increasing our presence and market size in Kolkata. With the larger and highly capable team with strong local market understanding, coupled with our relationship with Indian corporate that have been the drivers of the economy, we are poised to take advantage of the opportunity this market has to offer. C&W has been present in Kolkata for close to a decade in which the company has been instrumental in bringing in and then subsequently servicing the growing requirements of some of the biggest names in the services sector to the city. We are committed to leveraging our relationships bringing in more national and global companies to the eastern region.” 

 “Kolkata realty market has the distinct advantage of good human resource base coupled with some recently announced growth strategies along with its legacy of being an economic centre. The government has further announced initiatives like the creation of the Financial Hub in Rajarhat and proposal for setting up of Industrial Parks in PPP model and the rapidly developing infrastructure of the location. This has put Kolkata in an advantageous position for a future growth.” 

Abhijit Das, the newly appointed Office Director, East India further added, “Kolkata is an important economic hub in India’s eastern corridor which is poised for a new phase of growth. To be part of a company such as Cushman & Wakefield, which not only understands the potential of the market but is also committed to investing in the same by growing its operations in the eastern region is a certainly exciting place to be.  

“With the depth to service clients across the region including the states of Odisha, Assam and Bihar and also overseas destination of Bangladesh, we would be able to provide real estate services  to companies actively looking at expanding their operations in this region, this The Kolkata real estate market itself is promising and we expect to garner 25% market share in the next three years.”

The potential of the market can further be gauged by the fact that construction activity is estimated at 85 million sq ft. (approximately) across office, retail and residential in Kolkata in the next 3 years. Of this, approximately 12 mn sf is estimated to be office space, 1.7 msf is the upcoming retail space while an estimated 40,000 units is expected in organised residential supply while demand for residential far exceeds supply at 77,000 units. 

 Sanjay Verma, Chief Executive Officer, Asia-Pacific, Cushman & Wakefield commented: “The acquisition of the entire Lemongrass team is a crucial step towards strengthening our operations to help us be prepared for the next wave of growth in the Indian region and is in keeping with the growing requirements of our clients and continuing to build our capability for leveraging globally. This team acquisition will help us adequately leverage on the opportunities in the market, and would enable us to enhance our service delivery capabilities and create a dominant position for Cushman & Wakefield in the Eastern India market.”