Ample Parks launches maiden, 800-crore, 2-mn-sqft facility in Chennai

The Actis and Mahindra Lifespaces joint venture & industrial, logistics real estate platform Ample Parks today announced the launch of its maiden 2.1 million square feet facility with a capital outlay of ₹800 crore in Mahindra World City (MWC), Chennai.

Spanning 71 acres, the facility is located near Oragadam Industrial Corridor – Maraimalai Nagar (OMM) micro-market.

Ample Parks' Chief Executive Officer & Director, Akash Rastogi, told Indian Transport & Logistics News in an exclusive interaction that he expects the Chennai facility to generate ₹110 crore revenue annually upon completion in 2028.

“Over 10 years, factoring inflation and escalations, that’s about ₹1,400 crore.”

“We expect completion by the end of 2028, though revenue will start flowing in phases before that.”

“Two commercial buildings—ground plus three structures—totalling about five lakh square feet are already developed. The remaining space is under construction.”

He also noted that the facility has the potential to generate 11,000 employment opportunities.

Key statistics of Chennai industrial & logistics warehousing market in 2024 and 2023 (Source: Savills India Research)

“Tamil Nadu is a powerhouse for industrial development, offering a sizable skilled workforce—more than 200,000 engineering graduates pass out every year,” he responded on why Ample chose the South Indian state for their maiden facility.

“Tamil Nadu is the second-largest contributor to India’s GDP. Chennai itself is ideal due to its infrastructure—port, road network—and it’s a corridor to the South.”

According to Savills India, industrial and warehousing space absorption in Chennai stood at 5 mn sq ft in 2024 against 4.5 mn sq ft in 2023.

“We’ve located our project inside MWC, which already has 65+ large industries across 1,550 acres.”

He claims that the project is the largest Grade-A industrial space currently available within the Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) of MWC.

Rastogi informed that they have several conversations going on with clients—some within MWC looking to expand, and some planning to enter India via Chennai.

“We're speaking to companies in engineering, auto & ancillaries, and electronics & white goods.”

Akash Rastogi, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Ample Parks

Rastogi is an engineering graduate and has worked with real estate investment funds in Australia and the US.

“For the last seven years, I’ve focused on logistics and industrial.”

He was Head of Acquisitions for LOGOS India, then founded his own logistics and industrial company—set up a construction and development firm—and eventually sold them to co-found the platform Ample Parks with Actis and Mahindra.

The joint‑venture platform was launched in August 2024 by global sustainable infrastructure-focused investment firm Actis (majority owner) and the Indian real estate, infrastructure development company Mahindra Lifespaces (significant minority partner).

Over 5 to 7 years, Ample intends to scale 10x from our current land portfolio to 20 million sq ft across 700 acres, according to Rastogi.

He noted that there is a lack of innovation in product design and master planning in the Indian industrial and logistics warehousing space. And Ample Parks wants to offer integrated industrial parks that combine logistics, commercial spaces, and even worker housing. The platform aims to build a balanced portfolio on both the logistics and industrial side across Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities.

“Chennai is just the start.”

Rastogi also informs that Chennai is not a one-project location for them.

“We plan to do more there.”

“Next, we’re looking at Maharashtra, making an announcement soon. Pune is another target. We're looking at Tier 1 cities—Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Kolkata—and also Tier 2 cities like Lucknow, Jaipur, Aurangabad, Guwahati, Patna, Nagpur, Indore, Vizag, and Coimbatore.”

He sees demand from e-commerce, FMCG, industrial logistics, and now quick commerce.

“Demand is expanding into Tier 2 cities. In Tier 1 cities, we see growth in multi-level and in-city distribution centres.”

“There's a move beyond vanilla fulfilment centres toward volumetric efficiency, higher ceilings, mezzanine processing, and automation—all of which justify higher rents and larger footprints.”

Ample Parks is following a mixed business model: speculative, built-to-suit, and limited polt sale-based.

“We are starting our work based on speculative development.”

“Our model is to create rental-income-generating assets.”

“We intend to own the land and offer long-term leases. We'll cater to built-to-suit requirements and offer plug-and-play facilities for quick deployment. We'll also provide, on a limited basis, industrial plots for sale and built-up sheds with purchase rights later.”