U.S. is selling its seaside palace in India for $113 million

An Indian pharmaceutical magnate has plunked down $113 million to buy a stately mansion in Mumbai that was once owned by a maharaja, one of the most expensive home sales ever in India’s glittering commercial capital.

The seller? Uncle Sam.

The building, that sits on two acres with a sweeping view of the Arabian Sea, was the U.S. Consulate from 1957 until 2011 when the American diplomats moved out into new digs. The U.S. government put the property up for sale in 2011, but the building – which has a historic designation -- languished on the market for nearly five years.

The buyer, a billionaire named Cyrus Poonawalla, told the Times of India he wants to use the property as a family home. Poonawalla, 74, is the chairman and managing director of the Serum Institute of India, pharmaceutical company that makes low-cost vaccines like tetanus and anti-venom for snake bites. He is worth an estimated $8 billion, according to Forbes. Oh, and he breeds race horses in his spare time.

The home, now known as Lincoln House, was formerly Wankaner House, a royal mansion that once belonged to a maharaja from the western state of Gujarat. It sits on Breach Candy, a tony beachfront area in south Mumbai.

One of its neighbors is Breach Candy Swimming Bath Trust, a club for the elite Mumbaikers that has a swimming pool in the shape of India – pre-Partition.

The mansion purchase was confirmed by a spokesman for Poonawalla's son, Adar Poonawalla, the executive director of the Serum Institute.

A member of the maharaja's family lamented to the Times of India newspaper in 2011 that they should never have sold their home to the United States. The family leased it to the United States government in 1957 for 999 years, and the U.S. government eventually assumed full control.

"The huge appreciation in land prices in the last five decades has proved that we sealed one of the worst deals of selling a royal mansion," Digvijaysinh Jhala told the newspaper.

Heidi Hattenbach, an information officer at the consulate,  said that they had no comment on the matter.