Wadia’s Bombay Dyeing 18-acre land deal might become the city’s most valuable land transaction. Although there has been no proper confirmation, a number of real estate industry sources have reported that the Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo is anticipated to purchase 18 acres of Bombay Dyeing’s mill land on Pandurang Budhkar Marg in Worli for about Rs 5,000 crore.
Early this week, the law firm Wadia Ghandy published a notice in the public requesting information regarding the right, title, and interest in the Worli land owned by Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
Sumitomo Might be the Buyer of Wadia’s 18-Acre Land
On a hot Wednesday afternoon, tempos are lined up outside Wadia International Centre (WIC), the WWadia Group headquarters, within Worli’s large Bombay Dyeing factory.
The chairman’s office has been relocated to the Bombay Dyeing facility at Dadar-Naigaun as the building is being demolished. The Shilpa Shetty-owned Bastian restaurant has closed behind the Wadia corporate offices. What is going on with this prime piece of real estate in the heart of Mumbai, owned by one of the biggest landowners in the city, Nusli Wadia?
According to sources, Mumbai’s largest land deal by value involves the 18-acre site being sold to Japanese company Sumitomo.
Several years earlier, Brookfield Asset Management paid Rs. 6,700 crores for the offices and retail space owned by Hiranandani Group in Powai. However, the Brookfield transaction involved entire structures, whereas the Wadia transaction involved unoccupied ground. An attempt to reach a Wadia Group spokesman by phone and leave a remark was unsuccessful. The Wadia Group’s real estate firm, Bombay Realty, formerly referred to the WIC as “the second flagship project”.
It was intended to be a “luxury mixed-use” development with offices, a mall, a luxury hotel, and homes. High roadway and cutting-edge medical facility. However, according to market sources, the Wadias have made the decision to separate themselves from this property and move their offices to the Bombay Dyeing Spring Mills in Dadar-Naigaum.
The state housing authority, Mhada, received eight acres from Bombay Dyeing’s Dadar-Naigaum mill for public housing and eight additional acres for leisure area under the mill land policy.
According to a BMC official, the developer will be entitled to transfer development rights for more than 82,000 square meters in exchange for giving the BMC and Mhada access to a portion of its territory. On its half, the housing authority built residences for mill workers as well as buildings for transit accommodations.
Who is Sumitomo?
Sumitomo is a well-known name in the city’s real estate industry and is rumoured to be finalising a deal with the Wadias for the Worli site. A 12,141 sq. m. land piece in the Bandra-Kurla Complex was leased from MMRDA in 2019 by Goisu Realty, a division of Sumitomo, for Rs. 2,238 crore.
The Japanese business won a Rs. 2,067 crore MMRDA bidding for two land parcels in BKC last year. Sumitomo Corporation, which has 886 group companies, also develops and manages office buildings, retail establishments, homes, logistical infrastructure, and real estate funds.
Due to his role as the sole administrator of the F E Dinshaw Charities and F E Dinshaw Trust, Nusli Wadia, the chairman of the Wadia Group, is regarded as one of the largest private landowners in the city.
