Strata Property Management, a private equity funded commercial real estate funded platform, is understood to be acquiring the beleaguered coffee chain – Café Coffee Day’s iconic head-office building in Bangalore for close to Rs 165 crore.
A special purpose vehicle:
Vatsav Infra LLP, which was incorporated during early 2023, is understood to have signed binding agreements with Coffee Day Global Limited (CDGL) to acquire the entire property.
The main building comprising 2 basements, ground and 10 upper floors with terrace has a super built-up area of around 9,800 square metres which is equal to a tad over 1 lakh square feet.
The building, which is roughly shaped like a coffee-bean, is an iconic landmark in the city of Bengaluru overlooking the lush 300 acres Cubbon Park.
It is yet to be ascertained whether the operations of Café Coffee Day will continue from the same location post the completion of the transaction with Vatsav Infra LLP. Repeated efforts to reach Vatsav Infra and Coffee Day Global did not yield results. The article will be updated when we hear from them.
This is the latest blow to the highly-diversified Café Coffee Day which has been losing steam ever since its legendary founder V.G. Siddhartha passed away 4 years ago tragically.
The chain which was besotted with heavy debts has been slowly turning around with his family at the helm. Recent reports indicated that Coffee Day Global, operator of Café Coffee Day chain of certain cafés, is facing bankruptcy proceedings.
Strata, is a tech-enabled commercial real estate investment platform, and it has raised external equity funding from Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd, Gruhas Proptech, a fund by Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha, Abhijeet Pai of Puzzolana Group for proptech investments and special situations, and Sabre Investments, which is the investment arm of Rahul Talwar, who belongs to the promoter family of DLF Ltd.
Strata, started in mid 2019, is founded by Sudarshan Lodha and Priyanka Rathore. It envisions to be the largest alternative investment platform for retail investors by enabling them to invest in commercial real estate assets by fractionalizing assets and offering them on an easy-to-use online platform.
Sudarshan Lodha, CEO, Strata was earlier quoted saying that they aim to democratize commercial real estate as an asset class like never before in India.
Vatsav Infra, as part of this transaction with Café Day Global has said that in addition to the main building which houses the corporate head of Café Coffee Day, it will also be acquiring two leased land parcels adjacent to it.
While one land parcel is spread over little over 50,000 square feet, the other measures around 2,850 square feet. Vatsav Infra will also be acquiring an adjacent building having a super built-up area of 1541 square meters equal to 16,590 square feet covering basement, ground and two upper floors.