Goldman Sachs to lease 1 mln sq ft office in Bangalore

MUMBAI (Reuters) - U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS.N) will lease 1 million square feet of office space in Bangalore to consolidate its operations, a company spokesman said on Thursday.

The new office, expected to be ready in five years, will house about 4,000 back-end office staff that work for Goldman from six premises in the city now, he said.

"We are entering a new lease for 1 million square feet of space for a project that will open in 2017 to consolidate our presence and accommodate future growth," the spokesman told Reuters.

The Economic Times earlier reported that Goldman plans to lease 1.6 million square feet of office space in the country's biggest commercial property deal by size.

Local property company, Kalyani Developers, will construct a three-building campus for the bank on a 14-acre site, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the transaction.

The bank, advised by property services firm CB Richard Ellis (CBG.N), will pay a rent of 49 rupees per square foot a month - about 600 million rupees a year for a million square feet, the paper said.

Kalyani Developers was not immediately available for comment. CB Richard Ellis declined to comment to Reuters.

($1 = 56.3 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)