Mauritius-based Grit Real Estate Income Group Limited (SEM:DELC, SEM:DELN) has announced plans to expand its Kenyan footprint via a hospital and data centre projects whose construction will start later this year.
The company told the Business Daily it plans to build a hospital along Ngong Road from the third quarter of the year and two data centres in Tatu City and Mlolongo along Mombasa Road.
The company has not disclosed the size of the investment it is putting into the new projects or the tenants it is in discussion with for the data centres.
“These projects are in the early stages and for something like a data centre it is quite hard to say exactly what elements we’re going to be doing and it is subject to a lot of discussions,” said Donald Borthwick, Grit’s managing director Industrial structure and Kenya.
“But for such projects the cost run in the tens of millions of dollars each.”
The announcement of the upcoming projects comes at a time when the firm has been deepening its local presence, opening its regional offices in Tatu City to ramp up its expansion in the East Africa region, specifically Kenya.
The company’s direct and indirect exposure in the country includes manufacturing facilities, a mall, warehouses and a diplomatic housing estate.
Grit in March 2022 completed the purchase of Orbit Products Africa’s manufacturing facilities from businessman Sachen Chandaria in a deal worth $53.6 million (Sh6.9 billion).
The multinational is planning the launch of Orbit Phase II where the facility will be refurbished and a new one developed.
Grit is also currently constructing the Eneo Tatu Central building, a five-storey office tower in the Tatu City business district.
The project is being developed on behalf of Call Centre International (CCI) Global and will host the largest international call centre in Africa.
The firm holds an indirect stake in the recently completed US Embassy housing estate in Rosslyn, which was developed by Gateway Real Estate Africa Ltd (Grea) and US-based Verdant Ventures.
Grit currently owns 35.01 percent of Grea but plans to raise this to about 50 percent by the end of this month.
The Mauritian firm also owns half of Buffalo Mall in Naivasha and a pharmaceutical warehouse along Mombasa Road that it leases out to South Africa’s Imperial Health Sciences Logistics.
