Cyrus Poonawalla Buys Lincoln House (Old US Consulate) For Rs. 750 Crore
Lincoln House which was an old US Consulate in Mumbai was purchased for Rs. 750 crore. Pune based industrialist Cyrus Poonawalla had acquired the house which is one of the costliest houses in India. The sale of the Lincoln House in the Breach Candy area of south Mumbai, which used to house the US Consulate before, but the consulate moved to its new building thus US officials put the house for sale.
The Lincoln House was formerly known as the Wankaner House, a palace belonging to the Wankaner Maharaja, Pratapsinhji Jhala Wankaner. It was leased to the US in 1957 and was renamed as the Lincoln House and the US made it their Consulate in the city. In 2011, the Consulate was shifted to a sprawling new building in the BKC area.
The billionaire and chairman of the Serum Institute Cyrus Poonawalla, makes it the largest ever real estate deal in the country’s financial capital. Serum Institute deals with manufacturing of drugs for snake bite. And this institute is the largest producer of the drug in India. This deal was one of the biggest in India ever. Last week, leading industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla has set a record of Rs. 425 crore for Jatia House in the plush Malabar Hill area.
Kumar Birla want to use the property as a family residence. But, Cyrus Poonawalla had crossed the record and done the deal within a week of Kumar Mangalam Birla’s deal. The Lincoln House is about 2 acres grade-III property and it has a build-up area of 50,000 sq ft. Though Lincoln House is grade-III property, sources said Cyrus Poonawalla wants to use the Lincoln House as a family residence. Lincoln House has been on the block since 2011.
Americans had purchased Lincoln House with very low price compared to what they demand to sell. The deal was not done in less time; the first deal was Rs. 850 crore. Last year, the iconic Mehrangir, the house of the father of the nation’s atomic programme, Homi Bhabha, in the Malabar Hill area, was sold to the Godrej family for Rs. 372 crore. In another high profile deal in 2011, the Maheshwari House was sold for Rs. 400 crore.