Mumbai's sea-facing Leela Bungalow on Juhu Tara Road, a nearly seven-decade-old Art Deco structure with Grade IIB heritage status that had attracted significant interest from developers and businessmen since being listed, has been sold for Rs 221 crore, HT reported.
The property, owned by Gautam Nanavati of the family associated with Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital, has been acquired by Notandas Realty, part of the Notandas Jewellers group. According to HT, the transaction was formalised on Wednesday following the completion of stamp duty and registration.
The buyers are father-son directors Mahesh Notandas Jagwani and Harsh Mahesh Jagwani, who head Notandas Realty. Mahesh Jagwani also serves as director of Notandas Jewellers, which operates a showroom in Bandra. The jewellery business was founded in 1983 by Kishin Jagwani and continues to operate from Waterfield Road in Bandra.
The ground-plus-one bungalow sits on a 1,355 sq metre plot with a built-up area of approximately 8,480.68 sq ft, and also features a terrace of around 2,500 sq ft and a garden spanning roughly 5,000 sq ft. Based on the built-up area, the deal works out to Rs 2,60,592 per sq ft — lower than banker Uday Kotak's Rs 2.89 lakh per sq ft transaction at Worli Sea Face, the report noted. Calculated on the full plot area of 14,585 sq ft, the per sq ft price stands at Rs 1,51,525.International property consultant JLL India managed the transaction, the report said, though the firm declined to comment when contacted. The bungalow had first been brought to market in 2022 with an asking price of Rs 210–220 crore. Earlier this year, the price was revised upward to Rs 250 crore. HT said that it had reported in January that the property was up for sale, adding at the time that three of the five interested buyers were Mumbai-based families.
The heritage classification, while drawing buyers' interest in the prestige of the address, simultaneously constrained full-scale redevelopment. As a Grade IIB structure, the bungalow permits refurbishment and extensions, provided the design remains in harmony with the original character and all heritage elements are preserved. Development permission for such properties is granted by the municipal commissioner in consultation with the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee, as per civic regulations. Mumbai has 289 such Grade IIB-designated structures in total, the report noted.
The bungalow retains original Burma teak door frames, archways and wooden detailing from the 1950s, along with a grand central Burma teak staircase and its characteristic Art Deco design. Sea-facing properties of this scale are scarce along the Juhu belt, the report said, which partly explains the strong buyer interest despite the heritage restrictions.
The Nanavati family's history lends the property considerable provenance. According to HT, Leela Bungalow was conceived as a joint family home for three generations and named after the daughter of Sir Manilal Balabhai Nanavati — a University of Pennsylvania graduate who served as Nayab Diwan under His Highness Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad III and later as Sole Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between 1936 and 1941. He was knighted by King George VI for his public service and also presided over the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics from 1943 to 1959.
His eldest son, Ratilal Nanavati, founded Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai in 1950, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in memory of Dr Balabhai Nanavati — who had served Baroda State as a medical officer for nearly four decades and later as personal physician to the Maharaja. Following a takeover by the Radiant Group, the hospital is today known as Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital, a 350-bed tertiary care facility.