Edelweiss ARC plans to auction DB Realty plot as it defaulted Rs 439 crore.

More than a decade ago, this prime sea-side plot of the Charni Road in southern Mumbai was to build the country’s tallest 125 storey luxury hotel. Some years later, a plan was revised and two 60-story residential towers were built on the 2.2-acre land. However, all of the plans have been void.

The land would be auctioned this 21 August after Rs 439 crore loan from the IFCI and the Central Bank of India is defaulted by the builder, Marine Drive Hospitality, part of the DB Realty Group.

The Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company (EARC) has blocked the property and set Rs 485 crore reserve prices.

On the 21st August, it will be sold “as is” and “as planned” based on dues, totalling Rs 473 Crore, with interest, charges and expenses, for the whole. Last November, after “the borrowers/guarantors failed to pay the amount,” the authorized EARC officer symbolically took possession of the estate.

Roughly three dozen tenants residing on the estate that had been rehabilitated by the DB on the same land have protested to the auction.

These tenants released a public notice opposing the auction and stated to have granted a “specific developer’s rehabilitation consent.” ‘Under such a situation, no other person or party can conduct the redevelopment,’ they added.

In 2011, BMC gave a stop-work notice to the hotel project stating that Rs 200 crore was not paid in arrears. It imposed a premium for the developer’s demand for construction concessions. DB eventually shelved the hotel plans on financial viability and began searching for a partner for the construction of the property for a residential project.