Lighthouse Canton to invest Rs 150-200 cr at Genome Valley

Hyderabad: MN Park at Genome Valley in Shamirpet is adding about 1,80,000 sqft life sciences real estate shortly. In addition, it has also firmed up its plans to add another 2,50,000 sqft with an additional investment of Rs 150-200 crore. This will be ready in two to three years. Currently, it has about 8.5 lakh […]

Hyderabad: MN Park at Genome Valley in Shamirpet is adding about 1,80,000 sqft life sciences real estate shortly. In addition, it has also firmed up its plans to add another 2,50,000 sqft with an additional investment of Rs 150-200 crore. This will be ready in two to three years. Currently, it has about 8.5 lakh sqft space and this investment is part of its plans to double its portfolio here, said Sanket Sinha Executive Director – Global Head of Asset Management, Lighthouse Canton.

Lighthouse Canton took this from Alexandria in 2016. In 2021, it forged a partnership with Canadian pension fund Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate arm of Canada’s institutional fund managers.

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Lighthouse Canton has co-invested with Ivanhoé Cambridge in the office space at the Genome Valley cluster.

“Genome Valley is the first life sciences real estate project where a pension fund has invested in South and Southeast Asia. Right now, we have 8.5 lakh sqft and we are adding about 1,80,000 sqft in about two months,” Sinha said, adding that about 50 per cent of the new space planned is booked.

Till now, the commitment for MN Park has been close to $ 100 million (about Rs 790 crore). This includes the 1.8 lakh sqft being added. It is looking to develop a further 2.5 lakh sqft and its design is under progress. This block will see an additional investment of Rs 150-200 crore and construction time will be 24 to 36 months, he said, adding that this is part of MN Park’s plans to double its portfolio at Genome Valley.

“Life sciences real estate demand is driven by the need to innovate new drugs and products. Asia is home to about 60% of the world’s population. Spending on healthcare will be a priority. This will lead to an increase in demand for research and development and this, in turn, will lead to a greater demand for quality life sciences real estate as well,” he said about the reasons why it is bullish about the life sciences sector.

There cannot be a standardised workstation kind of design in the life sciences real estate segment. Since the works are chemical and biological in nature, the real estate needs different effluent and treatment facilities. The heating, ventilation and air conditioning needs also vary. Also, the employment in the life sciences segment does not follow the typical 100 sqft per employee like in the services sector.

The R and D space requirements vary in the life sciences segment. About 3,000 people are working in MN Park, he said. “TS government is a great supporter of the life sciences cluster. Government efforts to give a push to the sector are seen every day. It is not difficult to tell why Hyderabad has emerged as the vaccine capital,” Sinha said.