Cyrus Poonawala

In a mind-boggling weekend sale, the iconic Lincoln House was sold to Cyrus Poonawalla, billionaire-chairman of the Pune-based Serum Institute, for a whopping Rs 750 crore!

The sale of the Lincoln House, located in the Breach Candy area of south Mumbai, which housed the erstwhile office of the US Consulate, has been termed as the largest-ever property deal to have taiken place in the country’s financial capital.

The 2-acre grade-III property at Breach Candy has a built-up area of around 50,000 sq ft. although grade-III heritage properties are open for redevelopment, sources said that Poonawalla will join the league of Kumar Mangalam Birla & use the Lincoln House as a family residence. The property which has been on the block since 2011 was sold at a lower price than what was demanded by the Americans.

The Lincoln House, once known as the Wankaner House, was a palace belonging to Maharaja Pratapsinhji Jhala Wankaner. In 1957, it was leased to the US & sold to the Consulate by the Maharaja later on, to pay off his taxes. The US made it their consulate in the city, renaming the palace to Lincoln House. The consulate was shifted to a sprawling new building in the BKC area in 2011 and the property was up for grabs since then.

Cyrus Poonawala is the Chairman of Serum Institute of India,, the largest producer of drugs for snake-bites. This is the second big ticket deal within a week of the sale of Jatia House bought by industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla for a record Rs 425 crore.

jatia house

Chairman of the $41billion Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla emerged as the highest bidder for the sea-facing Jatia House in Mumbai’s largest-ever property deal. Birla proffered Rs 425 crore to buy the two-storey house in the city’s tony Malabar Hill area during a day-long auction on September 7th, 2015.
Jatia House is owned by the MP Jatia Group. The Jatias purchased the bungalow in 1972 from Meher Cawasji Vakeel. The Birla family, currently residing in Mangalyan at Altamount Road, plans to retain the new bungalow for personal use. A number of industrialists who have been born and brought up in south Mumbai, are now buying bigger spaces as their children grow up.

Birla has already paid 10% of the deal amount as token which will be closed in the next one month. Birla outpaced  five bidders, including Ajay Piramal ‘s Piramal Realty, for the 30,000 sq ft bungalow. This is the most expensive real estate transaction of Mumbai , after Sajjan Jindall’s purchase of Maheshwari House for Rs 400 crore and industrialist Adi Godrej ‘s bid of Rs. 372 crore for Mehrangir, the iconic bungalow of Homi Jehangir.