Tall & Urban News

In Mumbai’s real estate market, Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company is reviving the prestigious Kohinoor Square, a residential-commercial development in the Dadar neighborhood. The project has been mired in litigation, and construction and was stalled in 2012.

The building was bought by the Kohinoor Group. Kohinoor CTNL Infrastructure Private Ltd, a subsidiary of Kohinoor Group, began construction on the premium residential and commercial complex in 2009.

This is one of the rare instances where an asset reconstruction company (ARC) has taken over the debt from an assortment of banks and financial institutions to revive an incomplete real estate project. Besides taking over the Rs10 billion ($140 million) debt, the ARC has also provided priority financing to complete the project.

In the next few months, the occupation certificates (OCs) for part of the commercial tower are expected to be issued out. Some lenders like Bank of Baroda and IL&FS own some units in the commercial premise in lieu of unpaid loans.

“First, we bought the debt from various banks. After aggregating the debt, we infused additional finance of Rs3 billion ($42 million) and another Rs1.75 billion ($24 million) to complete the project. In the next few months, a part of the commercial tower will be obtaining the occupational certificates and issuing them to investors,” said a source at Edelweiss ARC.

The initial plan was to build a five-star hotel. The plan was revised to have two towers of 52 floors and 32 floors, which will have both commercial and residential space. The construction was on schedule, but litigation over the floor space index (FSI) in 2012 slowed down the project.

The Rs20 billion ($281,690,140) Kohinoor project is being completed by Sandeep Shirke And Associates (SSA), a Prabhadevi-based architectural firm.

For more on this story go to DNA India.