BEST depot fetches best price

 

MUMBAI: The real estate market seems to moving in only one direction — up.

 

For the second time in three days, an underused BEST depot was sold for a whopping price. This time, Wadhwa Developers won the bid for the 9 acre (4 lakh sq ft) depot in Goregaon (West) for Rs224 crore. The next highest bid was Rs106 crore.

 

On Friday, the BEST depot at Kurla was sold for Rs40.5 crore. In both cases, the tender stipulates that the successful bidder must build office buildings and restrooms for BEST staff.

 

At the Goregaon depot, while roughly 30,000 sq ft will be used this purpose, Wadhwa will be allowed to develop the remaining area of over 3.5 lakh sq ft for sale.

 

Joy Sanyal, who heads the lands department of global property consultants Trammell Crow Meghraj, said, “It’s a good deal. While land deals are not quantified on square foot basis, the rate works out to about Rs5,700 a sq ft compared to the current land rate of Rs3,500 a sq ft.”

 

“It is a good bargain,” Vijay Wadhwa, managing director of Wadhwa Developers, said about the high price his company paid for the plot. “We do not dabble in speculation. I believe if the location and product being offered are good, price is not a factor.”

 

Wadhwa plans to build a residential complex of four 36-storey buildings for high net-worth individuals at the plot. Surrounded by greenery, the plot is located behind Cinemax and is barely 2km from Versova.