Raheja Corp buys 30 acres from Cabot for Rs 210 cr

Realty firm is looking to build infotech park on Navi Mumbai plot

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In one of the biggest land deals in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) this year, real estate developer K Raheja Corp has bought 30 acres in the Ghansoli area of Navi Mumbai for Rs 210 crore or Rs 7 crore an acre, from US-based speciality chemicals company Cabot Corporation, said a source.

K Raheja Corp, one of the largest developers of business parks in the country under the brand ‘Mindspace’, is looking to build an infotech park on the plot, the source added.

The 30-acre plot earlier housed a plant of Cabot, now shut. The plot would have total developable space of four million sq ft and floor space index (FSI) of three million sq ft. FSI means permissible construction allowed on a plot of land.

Raheja Corp declined to comment on the matter. Cabot executives could not be contacted.

According to property consultants, this is a good deal for the Rahejas, as they are buying a single block of land and already have a major presence in Navi Mumbai. Raheja has Mindspace properties in Airoli and Juinagar.

“Though prices are slightly higher in the area, there are not many takers for large plots for information technology parks,” said a senior property consultant who did not want to be named.

Cushman & Wakefield was the advisor for Cabot on the transaction.

The Cabot land sale precedes the plant closures by two pharmaceutical majors — Pfizer and Sandoz — in the Thane-Navi Mumbai area in the recent past.

Recently, Pfizer had sold its plant in the Thane area for a lump sum of Rs 178 crore to Vidhi Research and Development.

Pfizer had shut its manufacturing facility on September 16.

In another instance, Sandoz, the generic division of Novartis, announced it would discontinue operations at its Turbhe site by the end of December 2016. It is not clear whether Sandoz would sell the plant and the property.

The two plant closures cited above are consolidation of manufacturing facilities, with the shutting down of older facilities and re-direction to more modern facilities.

In another large commercial real estate deal, Abbott India bought 500,000 sq ft space in the Godrej BKC project in Mumbai from Godrej Properties for Rs 1,400 crore.