Dinesh Kamath's news item 'L&T to change Navi Mumbai's realty landscape with its project Seawoods?' that was published in Newsband

L&T to change Navi Mumbai's realty landscape with its project Seawoods?

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: There is a project that has the potential to change Navi Mumbai's realty landscape, the L&T Seawoods. It's a project L&T bagged for Rs 1800 crore by outbidding DLF and Indiabulls Real Estate in 2008.

L&T Seawoods will come up on 40 acres and will be spread across 6.2 million square feet. It entails modernisation of railway station that has lines going to South Mumbai, parking space for 6500 cars, a mall spread across 1 million square feet and 4 million square feet of office space. L&T says all of this will be integrated and it is expecting 1 lakh visitor's everyday. The company says the location and the upcoming connectivity is L&T Seawoods biggest selling point.

L&T Seawoods is two kilometers away from the Sion-Panvel 10-lane expressway under construction that will connect Mumbai with Pune and is also in close proximity to the upcoming Eastern Freeway linking Ghatkopar with Fort in South Mumbai as well as Chembur Link Road that ends close to the Santacruz Airport. Brokers say L&T recently did pre-sales of its office space. It sold nearly 1.25 lakh square feet at Rs 11,500 a square feet.

As for the mall L&T says its specs are meant for foreign retailers and the company will provide supporting infrastructure for backend like loading bays. It hasn't signed any leases yet but retail consultants tell us brands like Zara, Gap, Marks and Spencer (M&S), Uniqlo, Hypercity, Bharti Retail have all shown interest in opening their shutters here.

CNBC-TV18 learns that the average rent will be Rs 100 a square feet. Analysts say L&T is pricing it very competitively considering mall rentals in nearby Vashi are for around Rs 240 a square feet. The mall and office space is expected to be ready in the first half of 2015.