KOCHI: Taurus Investment Holdings, the Boston-headquartered global real estate private equity investment and development company which began its Indian journey with a Rs 1500 crore project at Techno park Thiruvananthapuram, plans to focus more on the tier 2 and 3 cities in the country. The company founder and chairman Lorenz Reibling, who was in Thiruvananthapuram for the inauguration of the project, prefers India to China in the Asian region.Reibling finds the conditions in India more suitable for the style of functioning of the company as he gives importance for government support, environment and culture along with investment. “The government support is important for us new comers. The government of Kerala has been quite supportive,’’ he added. The Kerala project is coming up in the PPP mode.
Reibling prefers tier 2 and 3 towns than the metros where the competition is tough. . “ It is better to become the first player in the smaller city where there is dynamic demand than one of the many players in the bigger market,’’ he pointed out. This played a part in the company’s choice of Thiruvananthapuram to start operations first in the country. The Taurus Downtown Trivandrum project comprises a 33 lakh sq ft IT space, 12 lakh sq ft retail space and 315 room service apartment and a business hotel giving direct employment to 35,000. Major SEZ builder Embassy Group-based in Bengaluru is partnering with Taurus for the project. For service apartments Kochi-based Asset Homes is the partner. Though the first phase will be completed in 2020. the project will provide prefabricated incubation space facility to companies that have signed up for space with around 800 seats on two floors as early as March next year, Ajay Prasad, country managing director of Taurus said.
