• The Regional MD - South India and Sri Lanka of The Executive Centre (TEC) Manish Khedia talks to The Daily Morning Business of plans to expand its services in Colombo next year (2024)

At a time Sri Lanka is taking the beginner steps on the long pathway for economic recovery along with ongoing discussions for debt restructuring with creditor countries and the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), gradual increase of economic activity is much anticipated since recovering from the crisis alone is not sufficient but also the economic revival. Therefore,  the commencement of halted plans for expansion is next thought in the mind of the corporate sector entities, undoubtedly.

Among those plans, businesses going global amidst the recession, expanding the businesses in those branches are also in the pipeline. The Daily Morning Business was able to contact one such business that expanded in Sri Lanka, The Executive Center. It  is a premium work space provider based in Hong Kong. Its network spans from China, Southeast Asia, North Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and the Middle East.

The Daily Morning Business sat with Manish Khedia, the Regional Managing Director- South India And Sri Lanka of The Executive Centre (TEC) in hearing its growth plan for its Colombo quarters in the coming years amidst Sri Lanka’s gradual steps towards overcoming the prevailing economic situation.

Q- What is “The Executive Center (TEC)”? What is their presence in Sri Lanka?

A: We have been growing consistently in the market for the past 28 years. We are operating in 14 countries in more than 35 cities. The Executive Center, Colombo operations commenced at the World Trade Center (WTC) of Colombo, in 2017. It is “no brainer” that WTC is an ideal landmark building in Colombo as a premium, flexible workspace solution provider.

Q- What are the expectations in expanding your presence in Colombo?

A: We have signed up at MAGA building in Colombo 05 for one enterprise client at the beginning and later was provided for multiple clients. MAGA ONE is an A Grade business tower of 33 floors, located between Sri Lanka’s Central Business District and administrative capital Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, while providing multiple access points to Colombo’s road network, businesses and public institutions. It was completed in 2018 and open for occupation.   

The WTC is renowned as an iconic location of the city of Colombo with two 39-storey office towers along with a central four-storey retail podium. These two towers, in fact, house over 750,000 square feet of prime office space while providing an exceptional platform for businesses and networking opportunities for local, international, and multinational companies. The WTC is owned by the World Trade Centres Association (WTCA), which is a trusted, global facilitator in international business connections with a network of more than 325 businesses and organisations in nearly 100 countries.

Accordingly, both the locations of the TEC, i.e. WTC and MAGA ONE, currently consist of more than 400 workstations which was a total investment of over Rs. 400 million.  

Q- You find flexible workspaces as a key existing trend in the Colombo real estate market. Why do you think it is a trend at the moment with the prevailing crisis?

A: The Colombo journey has been ‘successful’ and the management has given approval for  further expansion in Colombo. And we are looking at it in 2024. However, Covid hindered TEC’s plans as instant change in the workplace culture and market behaviour needs to be observed prior to the decision, similar to that of TEC’s rest of the quarters due to the pandemic. Even amidst the prevailing crisis in the country, flexible work spaces help companies diversify their risk of providing realistic solutions by finding a short term solution. Therefore, flexible workspaces perform “phenomenally well” after Covid.  All TEC's centres are “running with more than 95% occupancy which in fact, demonstrates the demand for flexible office space following the Pandemic.

Q- Colombo is slightly improving. What are the aspects you find improving in the POV of your business ?

A: Sri Lanka is currently in the path of overcoming economic crisis and as for economic revival over the coming years, the demand for flexible workspace has been stabilised and improved slightly thus in comparison to April 2022 when the unprecedented crisis hit the economy. We see a slow potential recovery in Sri Lanka which helps flexible space operators because any company wants to improve its real estate portfolio further as its long term vision when the company is diversified as flexible office space comes into picture. Therefore, those companies go for a short term lease from a flexible work space provider. The Executive Center anticipates that Sri Lanka would be able to achieve a few stages towards its economic recovery by 2024. Therefore, 2023 will be a ‘wait and watch’ strategy for all the companies.

Q- What are the expectations in expanding your presence in Colombo?

A: The economy has been improved slightly in Sri Lanka in terms of its business due to the 95% occupancy,  TEC has decided to expand its space in 3, 000 square feet at  WTC adjoining its existing centre.

Therefore, we see that major growth will happen in 2024, with the country’s stability and Sri Lanka’s economy will also improve relatively.

Q- Can The Executive Center expand beyond Colombo? What is the demand for flexible workspaces in other commercial cities in Sri Lanka?

A: Our primary focus is into premium landmark buildings that are operational since TEC exclusively engaged in providing premium work space solutions as in Colombo despite the macroeconomic challenges during the last two years, Colombo is engaged in real estate projects and there are several that are upcoming with the commencement of pending projects. For TEC, Colombo is the hub out of all the cities in Sri Lanka. Our expansion is predominantly in Colombo unless we have any enterprise client who wants to set up completely in any other city in Sri Lanka.

Q- By the revival, there is a possibility that trends in the market would change or evolve. How would that reshape the “future of work” in Sri Lanka?

 A: During the post Covid work space trends globally, the market has evolved globally as work space dynamics experience changes over the last three years saying that prior to the Pandemic, people have never heard of collaborations, flex office space, hybrid work model.

I believe that these global trends would last since these work space models have taken  work space flexibility to another notch upwards while mitigating risk. With the hybrid work model and collaboration work model, we expect the next couple of years at least to be in demand.

 TEC TO SERVE THE CHANGING WORK SPHERES

According to TEC, its coworking space has a positive impact on the business because the company  is recognised by multinational corporations in various industries with its experience over 28 years by engaging to its Member’s needs, staying up to date with the latest trends in real estate and hospitality across the Asia Pacific and Middle East.

Its product portfolio sys that it is a Grade A building space which provides premium services such as In-house baristas, open plan Coworking Spaces and the option to book meeting and conference rooms at preferential rates while its Members will have the opportunity to attend community events that cover a range of industries that interest them which provides opportunity to showcase their brands, products and company for a designated period within its TEC Centres. TEC also provides Member Benefits of preferential rates and discounts across products and services from TEC partners.