Facebook extends its office space in Mumbai’s BKC area with a new lease and renewals.

Facebook has taken 90,000 sq . ft in commercial tower One BKC in Mumbai’s business hub Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) through renewal and new lease agreements with Blackstone Group.

The office space is being enlarged, and the firm is preparing for a cautious return to work for its employees. Several major corporations are extending their workplace premises in order to implement social distancing changes.

Facebook, which has over 330 million active users in India, first rented over 20,000 square feet in this tower in 2015 to establish its corporate office.

As a result, the firm has been leasing more space in this office complex, which is managed by Blackstone Group’s Nucleus Office Parks.

Interestingly, Facebook has extended its existing leases and rented additional space for more than Rs 320 per sqft, up from approximately Rs 275 per sqft previously.

“Both transactions, including the addition of new space and renewal, have been completed in the last few days, and the deals have already been registered.”

This is one of Facebook’s corporate offices in India, and it also houses the FB Creator Studio. FB Creator Studio serves as the foundation for any business monetisation on Facebook. This office in Mumbai’s One BKC houses the senior management, operations, and ideation teams.

“We are, in fact, planning to considerably expand our offices in Mumbai and the NCR/Gurgaon. Our commitment to India is long-term, and the office expansion corresponds to all of the exciting work that is taking on across our products in India. These areas are being extended even as we prepare for a cautious return to our offices in accordance with Facebook’s global return-to-work standards, Indian government laws, and the changing local environment,” a Facebook spokesman said.

In one of the largest commercial property transactions in 2019, Blackstone Group paid Rs 2,500 crore to Radius Group for 7 lakh sqft of office space as part of the One BKC project.

In addition to purchasing One BKC’s whole A-wing (6.50 lakh sqft), Blackstone also purchased an additional 50,000 sqft in the project’s B wing.

While the developer had leased the whole A-wing, it had already strata-sold the B and C wings. The overall office space in the project is 1.5 million square feet.

The current and new office space for Facebook is located in the project’s A-wing. Bank of America, Trafigura Group, Amazon, Cisco, and ICICI Prudential are among the building’s main tenants.

With a total of 20 workers, Facebook launched its first India office in Hyderabad in 2010. Since then, the firm has expanded significantly in India, with operations in Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.