Wadhwa buys Mumbai land for Rs 570cr

MUMBAI: In the city's largest land transaction of 2009, the Mumbai-based Wadhwa Group is believed to have recently concluded negotiations to buy the 18-acre Hindustan Composites land in Ghatkopar for Rs 570 crore. Given the current circumstances, when the property market is just about finding its feet following a slump, the price is considered to be substantial.

The prime land is located on LBS Marg in Ghatkopar and has seen a slew of prospective buyers over the past several years. In 2008, the Suresh Raheja-led K Raheja Universal was believed to have virtually bought this land for over Rs 700 crore. However, when the property market tanked, the deal did not go through.

The plot is one of the last such sprawling defunct factory properties in the eastern suburbs; most of them have been sold since 2005. Vijay Wadhwa of the Wadhwa Group refused to comment but market insiders confirmed that the developer and the factory management would announce the transaction in the next two weeks. Wadhwa is expected to raise about Rs 400 crore from financial institutions for the land acquisition.

Property market experts said the developer had chalked out a plan to set up at least 15 residential buildings with over 1,100 apartments on this sprawling land. The property has a development potential of about 15 lakh square feet. This potential could shoot up substantially if Wadhwa takes advantage of the government's parking FSI of 4.

Many in the industry felt that the Wadhwa Group, known to be one of the more aggressive real estate groups, had overstretched itself when it quoted an astronomical Rs 831 crore for a less-than-two-acre plot in the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in November 2007.