Key sale

Rustomjee, a premium real estate developer in Bombay and environs, has sold 1.42 lakh square feet of office space in Andheri east to public sector SBI (State Bank of India) Life Insurance for a whopping Rs 211 crore. The rate works out to almost Rs 15,000 per square foot, reports The Times of India on the front page of its December 2, 2009 issue. "This has broken the jinx. It is the first large transaction deal in Bombay in a long time,” said a spokesman for Rustomjee. Keystone Group, which owns and operates brand Rustomjee, was founded by developer Boman Irani, venturing into construction in 1996.

"Rustomjee has also moved forward on the education front with its initiatives like the Rus­tomjee International School, Rustomjee Cambridge School, Rustomjee Business School and Rus­tomjee Academy,” states an e-mail from Swarup Patil of the company.

Among Rustomjee’s major ongoing projects is Global City at Virar west on the periphery of Bombay, spread over 217 acres and offering one, two, three and four bedroom apartments, ranging from 361 sq ft to 1,335 sq ft. With the group known to be progressive in ideas, internal roads in Global City "will be seven feet above the ground level, and will have no service lines like sewerage, telephone, broadband laid under them. Thus, these top quality roads will never be dug up for at least the next 20 years,” states a press release.