Three years ago, five National Textile Corporation mill land deals were the springboards that catapulted Mumbai’s realty prices to stratospheric levels. Today most of them are in choppy waters.

The developers who had once bid aggressively for the land deals are now struggling to either complete their projects or find lessees in the completed ones.

Take for instance the 11-acre Jupiter Mills and the eight-acre Elphinstone Mill at Lower Parel, bought by India Bulls at Rs 276 crore and Rs 441 crore.

India Bulls director Gagan Banga says work at both plots is going on at normal pace, that 1.1 million sq ft of the 1.5 million sq ft in the near-complete project at Jupiter Mills has already been leased out. “Our lessees include Reliance, Aditya Birla Group, NDTV, Edelweiss and IDFC,” said Banga.

However, according to information from the International Property Consultants (IPC), clients such as Reliance Mutual Funds and Aditya Birla Group, which have only signed letters of intent, are now demanding renegotiations on the lease rent. The last deal transacted was as long back as April.

Banga concedes that the rates have come down from Rs 275 per sq ft per month, but only up to Rs 225-250. IPC, however, says that even at Rs 195, there are no takers today.

As for Elphinstone Mills, on-site company officials confirmed that work on one of the buildings has been halted completely.

Bang opposite is the Mumbai Textile Mills. Bought over by DLF at Rs 704 crore, the 17-acre plot stands testimony to the country’s costliest land deal till then. Since its moment of glory, the changing market dynamics has forced the Delhi-based realty player to go back to the drawing board more than once. Plans for a business hotel, mall and multiplex were modified to make way for an IT park. For more than a year now, the massive cranes on site have been at rest and work has not proceeded beyond the basement. Despite repeated calls and e-mails, there was no response from the DLF spokesperson.

A month after the Mumbai Textile Mills deal, the limelight had turned to the Kohinoor Mill at Shivaji Park which was bought over by Kohinoor Projects — a joint venture between Unmesh Joshi (son of Sena leader Manohar Joshi) and Rajan Shirodkar, an associate of MNS chief Raj Thackeray. The 4.5-acre plot went at an unbelievable price of Rs 87 crore per acre, more than double the amount paid per acre for the Mumbai Textile Mills deal.

Like DLF, Kohinoor Projects, too, changed its plans from mall and commercial complex to an IT park. Construction on site has been at a complete standstill for over a year with the company making futile attempts at finding buyers for the plot. Sources from Kohinoor Projects say that the company today has a very negligible stake in the Shivaji Park project with its funding partner ILFS now being the major stakeholder.

The Lodha group, which had bought over the fifth mill — Apollo Mills at Chinchpokli — is building a super luxury residential project on the plot. Industry sources said that the group had recently retrenched a large number of its employees. The group’s HR head, Mahesh Thakur however, denied any such downsizing.

“It is a normal 10-20 per cent attrition per month. We are in fact, recruiting people,” he said.

Pankaj Kapoor CEO of Liases Foras, terms the mill land deals as the ‘genesis of price rise’ in Mumbai’s real estate. “The NTC deals had a cascading effect on locations as far as Kalyan. At Shivaji Park, Seth Developers doubled their rates overnight from Rs 12,000 per sq ft to Rs 24,000 per sq ft as soon as they heard about the Kohinoor land deal nearby.”