The dust-speckled windows of the dysfunctional revolving restaurant on the 22nd floor of Sea Rock hotel at Bandra offer a spectacular, unhindered view of the Arabian Sea.
And it's this seafront that the hotel's new owners, Delhi-based Suresh Nanda and his son Sanjeev Nanda, plan to develop as its USP.
The hotel, perched at the land's end at Bandstand, possesses 17,000 square metres of foreshore land.
This unexploited territory will be developed into a water sports complex, said Sudhanshu Purohit, director operations and business development, of the Nanda-owned Claridges Group of Hotels.
After being targeted in the 1993 bomb blasts only 46 rooms, the sea-facing Oceanic restaurant and the Arabian Sea Lounge (Lobby Bar) have been functional.
With the Claridges chain finalising the consent terms for taking over the hotel in the Bombay High Court on September 13, paying Rs 300 crores for the proposed 430-bed hotel, its old charm will be revived.
Started by the four Luthria brothers of Elel Group in the late 70s, the hotel was the first 5-Star Deluxe in the suburbs and instantly became a social hub for Bollywood stars.
According to residents, every morning a sizeable crowd gathered to watch Rekha emerge from the hotel where she did her workouts. It's this old charm that Sanjeev Nanda wants to reintroduce to the new generation. "We did the same thing with Claridges in Lutyen's Delhi. Most people in their twenties and thirties had forgotten about its charm, now we have at least managed to get the new generation's interest going in the hotel," added Nanda.
After the rough patch of the BMW hit-and-run controversy that claimed six lives in Delhi, the 28-year-old Nanda junior, Managing Director of the two hotel properties, is slowly returning to public life with these new initiatives. He is backed by a Rs 150-crore budget. Talks with UK and US-based designers are being finalised and if things go as per plans, Sea Rock should be rocking in about 18 to 24 months.
Apart from the upgraded restaurants, business lounges, designer concepts in food and beverage, day spa, night club and water sports, the hotel also plans to revive the city's first revolving restaurant. The murals of the kimono-clad Japanese girls in the revolving restaurant (first called Golden Chariot, then Windows and later Paris of the Western Empress) have witnessed many film stars shaking a leg at the dance floor.
Bellboy CM Date (48), who served the hotel for 26 years, reels off a long list visiting stars. "Salman Khan ne Sangeeta Bijlani ko khoob coffee pilaya yahan," (Salman treated Sangeeta Bijlani, his former girl-friend who later married Mohammed Azharuddin, to many coffees), he said with a giggle. "Bus ab to yahi chahate hain ki beete din laut aayen," (I only ask for the Golden Years to return), he said.
A legal tangle
Post-1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts in which Sea Rock’s18th floor was one of the targets, the hotel suffered structural damages. Its renovation got mired in the dispute between the Luthria brothers, which landed up in court. U B Luthria and G B Luthria sold their controlling 70 per cent stake to the Nanda’s. On the other hand S B Luthria had sold his shares to Mumbai-based developer Vicky Oberoi’s Skydeck Properties.
Many, including prominent politicians, were interested in acquiring the hotel, but were uncertain over the viability.
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