Step into the lobby of the newly opened Centre A business centre in the Alapatt Heritage building on M.G. Road, and the luxurious ambience is immediately apparent. Everything from the plush chairs to the shiny floors are bathed in warm light and the décor exudes a tastefulness most office spaces are not graced with. This is exactly the impression Joe Francis Alapatt, one of the directors of Centre A, a property of the newly formed Alapatt Properties Pvt. Ltd., wants you to have.
The idea behind Centre A is to provide a premium working environment with ready-made infrastructure into which companies can move in and start work. The business centre provides fully furnished workspaces, telephone and internet access, electricity, break rooms, and a rooftop café and garden. “The idea came to us when we were approached by a popular group that wanted to start a business centre in Kochi, but when talks fell through, we decided maybe we could go ahead and build one ourselves,” says Joe, who runs Centre A with his brother Antony.
“I was studying in the U.S. at the time, which gave me a perfect opportunity to research the market, and we soon realised that there was a vacuum for good office space in Kochi. At this point we decided that we could not settle for anything less than a world-class business centre,” says the 29-year-old.
After a nearly two-year planning process, Centre A opened in December last year and has now reached 90 percent occupancy, with clients including American Express, Uber, Air Asia, Tiger Air, Dockendale Ship Management and many more. “Today business is done globally, so the demand for serviced office space is high. We wanted to provide our clients with the best,” says Joe, explaining the pains taken to get the right materials for modern design and soundproofing. Each of the existing three floors has a receptionist who can attend calls on clients’ behalf, as well as break rooms where employees can get coffee or have lunch. The roof of the building will soon feature a café and a garden, which will also have internet access and power connections, so that employees can get some fresh air and still get some work done.
Joe stresses that all these facilities are exclusive to clients who have taken up office space in Centre A, though the centre does have meeting rooms that can be leased by third parties. “This solution is also a more cost-effective alternative to having a meeting in a hotel, and we can arrange food if required, though there is no compulsion on our clients to avail of the service. Besides, our tie-ups with other businesses get us discounts on many products and services, which we pass on to our clients,” says Joe.
The business centre’s success has led to the group working on an extra floor which will soon house a gym and an entertainment area, along with an executive floor with city and sea view office spaces and a business lounge where travelling businessmen can meet clients. The concept has resonated well with entities that only require a skeleton crew in the city. Nihaj G. Mohammed, a consultant with the American Heart Association, backs up this theory, “since it is just myself and one more staff member here, renting a conventional office, getting electricity, telephone and internet connections and managing it all would be tedious. We usually occupy business centres by other groups that offer such services, and when I mentioned to them that we have one in Kochi, they jumped at the idea.”
The proximity to other top companies and interactions with their staff is another draw of the business centre concept. “The ambience and international atmosphere we get here, combined with it being a cost-effective solution, is what brought us here. It’s a creative atmosphere, and you get to catch up with a lot of people of the same age and mindset when you go to the break rooms, so it is a big advantage,” says an executive with another of the MNCs working out of Centre A.
Buoyed by the positive response, Joe is now planning to expand to other tier 2 cities in South India and Southeast Asia in the next five years. “Big cities are now saturated and businesses are realising the need to have a presence in smaller cities in order to grow. We are now targeting cities like Vizag, Mangalore, Coimbatore and Colombo, apart from providing virtual office services to startups and the like,” he says.
A tour of the facilities at Centre A is a reflection of how quickly companies are growing and how diverse their needs are. The pace is fast, the requirements are high, and going by what is on offer here, Kochi is on the map for the businesses of tomorrow.
