Tech giant Apple has leased commercial space of 1.16 lakh square feet for 10 years on Bengaluru's Cubbon Road for Rs 2.43 crore rent per month, Moneycontrol.com reported, citing the documents accessed by Propstack.

Apple has leased the seventh to ninth floors as well as parts of the fourth and sixth floors of a commercial building by Prestige Estates Projects — Prestige Minsk Square. The rent per square feet comes to Rs 195, and also Rs 16.56 lakh per month for car parking, the documents showed.

The rent commencement date was July 1, 2023, whereas the lease commencement date for the fit-outs was November 28 last year.

Mohammed Musa Sait Waqf, Apple India and Prestige Estates Projects signed the lease deed. Musa Sait Wakf, in 2017, had entered into an aggreement with the developer to build the commercial building which comprises three basements as well as 14 floors, plus the ground floor.

The rent for the leased commercial space would be increased by 15 percent after every three years. Apple can either renew the lease for three more terms of five years each, Moneycontrol.com reported.

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Apple last week officially lifted the curtains off its long-awaited own branded retail store in India. At Jio World Drive Mall in Mumbai, Apple unveiled the barricade of its first brick-and-mortar store there, officially announcing the impending debut of Apple BKC.

Apple has been eyeing entering the Indian market for quite some time now. In January, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said Apple Inc wanted India to account for up to 25 percent of its production from about five to seven percent now, as it continued to move its manufacturing away from China.

Apple Inc also began assembling its latest iPhone models in India in a significant break from its practice of reserving much of that for giant Chinese factories run by its main Taiwanese assemblers, a key win for the country's “Make in India” campaign.

In November last year, two government officials said Apple supplier Foxconn was planning to quadruple the workforce at its iPhone factory in India over two years, pointing to a production adjustment as it faces disruptions in China.

Last month, it was reported that Foxconn Technology Group was planning to invest around $700 million on a new plant in India to ramp up local production. Two sources also said that Foxconn had won an order to make AirPods for Apple Inc and was planning to build a factory in India to produce the wireless earphones, Meanwhile, last month two sources also reported that, Apple Inc's Taiwanese supplier Pegatron Corp, was in talks to open a second India factory, as the US tech giant's partners continuedto diversify production away from China.

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First Published:Apr 10, 2023 9:17 AM IST