Thane’s commercial space czar

Niikhil Ballal & Juili Kulkarni

When more than half of the world was shedding tears on the sorry state of economy particularly the real estate in 2008, Hiren Chheda saw an opportunity when the others didn’t, as he jumped into one of the most exciting businesses.

Hailing from a hardcore business family, Hiren, son of Hansraj Chheda, who is known to be nothing less than the retail king of Thane, had big shoes to fill. A graduate from R.A. Podar College of Commerce and Economics and post graduate in Advertising and Marketing from NMIMS, Mumbai, Hiren had his first taste of business in 2001. Starting from manufacturing of garments with his elder brother, Hiren joined his father’s growing real estate business in 2008. After establishing himself in the residential space, Hiren decided to take a step further and venture into quality commercial spaces, something which Thane did not possess. What started as an experiment has now turned into a successful business space.

One of the initial challenges that Hiren faced was convincing people, who were sceptical to pay a premium for a commercial building. “Earlier, people could not fathom why there was a significant difference between the residential rates and commercial rates and what could be the benefits of having an office in a proper commercial building. Slowly, my team, partners and I managed to convince the people by highlighting the gaps between residential and commercial spaces in terms of intangibles like business image, employee morale and recognition in market besides tangible benefits like parking, accessibility, cafeteria, etc.,” averred Chheda.

Before the advent of dedicated commercial buildings, offices and homes had no separate identities. People used to work in so-called offices, where there was a dearth of an office-like look and feel. “The interruption of pressure cooker whistles in the middle of important meetings was a common phenomenon”, chuckled Hiren. Therefore, it was necessary to segregate the two; home and office. Initially people were hesitant to pay the premium for commercial premises then they realized that we are providing them with the state of the art facilities and infrastructure including glass façade, decorative entrance lobbies, power backup for all offices and common areas, ample parking, etc.  alongside road, rail and metro connectivity. “Initially we employed the push strategy (convincing people to buy office space in commercial buildings) to push our product into the market, but slowly as people realized the value of our product, we switched to the pull strategy,” stated Hiren.

Hiren Chheda’s first commercial project was Orion Business Park in Kapurbawdi that was completed around 2011. It was Thane’s first pure commercial project that housed multiple diverse businesses. It was a dream start for Hiren as the commercial spaces in Orion Business Park sold like hot cakes. Next up, from Kapurbawdi, he moved to Wagle Estate, which was declared as IT zone by Maharashtra government. Between 2012 and 2019, Hiren along with his multiple business partners built Odyssey IT Park, Opal Square, Omega IT Park, Centrum and Oriana Business Park and played an instrumental role in bringing the top business houses from Mumbai to Thane. “Lot of big companies like TCS, Aditya Birla Group, Tata Motors started moving to Thane thanks to the phenomenal growth potential exuded by the city. In our various projects, top corporates like Amara Raja Batteries, HDFC Ltd., Panasonic, ABP Group, Reliance Energy, etc. have moved their offices into the city.

One of the gripping problems that plague the common man is the exorbitant number of travelling hours that he/she spends daily from home to office. “Many people from Thane, Dombivali spend at least 3-4 hours a day in travelling for work. Majority of these people are in the senior management of big companies. A lot of them have convinced their head offices to let them move operations to Thane to save on cost (lesser rentals in Thane compared to Mumbai) and travel time, which will improve overall efficiency. Thus, by developing such quality business parks, we intend to increase the productivity of the people by reducing their commute time,” explained Hiren. Apart from the job seekers, the job givers also benefit as the cost per desk is lower in Thane compared to Mumbai. Thus it is a win-win situation for both the stakeholders.

Considering the rising number of IT parks, Wagle Estate has become the central business district of Thane. “It is my dream to provide an affordable office to every businessman in Thane and neighbouring areas as well as to professionals,” exclaimed Hiren. In pursuit to achieve his dream, he travels a lot. “I am an avid traveler because I believe that it opens up an avalanche of learning opportunities that helps me grow and motivates me to work harder,” elucidated Hiren.

Talking about the commercial parks, Chheda said, “All our buildings are marquee buildings and most of them are maintained by JLL, which is world’s largest and best property management company that is also known to manage top buildings in BKC and Gurgaon. We believe that our forte is to make a good building, therefore, we pass on the maintenance and management work to professional agencies.”

As they say from a residential building standpoint, we do not build houses, we build homes, similarly, in case of Hiren Chheda’s IT parks and Business parks, he and his partners do not build just commercial spaces but build a business community. “There is a lot of networking that happens in such business parks which provides an impetus to individual businesses. Additionally, it is also easier to get support staff as they are wooed by the top notch working conditions,” discussed Hiren. There are various meets in which the businessmen and professionals get a chance to meet their counterparts, share and discuss ideas and thus grow from each other’s experiences. “We are a one big community and we feel proud to contribute to the city’s growth and development,” he added.

Hiren is very proud of his partners, office team, and site staff. “We are a very close bunch of team members and have contributed to each other’s growth. We known each others’ strengths and complement each other well. Without their support and existence none of our landmarks could have turned out the way they have today,” he said.

Apart from being a dedicated businessman, Hiren is a connoisseur of arts, theatre and sports, especially football. At the age of 40, Chheda, with his fabulous work in the development of commercial spaces in Thane has unequivocally changed the identity of Thane from an industrial hub to a corporate hub and has thus carved the city’s name on the global business map. Thane is no longer thriving in the shadow of Mumbai but is rather seen rubbing shoulders with the financial capital as it has slowly become a preferred office location for top corporates.

On a concluding note, Hiren Chheda reminisced, “My father used to always tell me no matter how much loss you incur in your business, never stop trying. Thus, whenever there is even the slightest of the hiccups in the business my father’s words reverberate in my ears and I gather confidence to stand up again and get going.”