EMI Unveils $4B Mixed-Use Complex

BANGALORE, INDIA-In a proposal touted as the largest private mixed-use venture ever undertaken in southeastern India, the real estate arm of Elbit Medical Imaging has formed a partnership to develop a $4-billion complex of lodging, office, residential and retail space on a 200-acre parcel in this teeming metropolis of 6.5 million people. The total footprint to be constructed will exceed 21 million sf upon completion around 2013.

EMI and an established Indian developer have signed a deal for a 50/50 investment in the unnamed project, which will target multi-national companies and IT-related firms to lease the office portion. The partnership hopes to begin construction within 12 months upon receiving the necessary permits and finalizing $150-million payment for the land, of which EMI has already committed $50 million.

“We are extremely pleased to announce the signing of the binding and definitive agreements for this huge project, which is impressive even by Indian standards,” EMI chairman Mordechay Zisser says in a release. The project, he adds, “signals the expansion of the focus on our Indian activities beyond shopping malls and hotels to include up-market residential construction and ancillary amenities, as well as commercial units and office complexes and hotels.”