The Jugantar-Amrita Bazar Patrika building on AJC Bose Road. Picture by Pabitra Das

From news buzz to retail razzmatazz. The now-idle property, which once used to house the offices of the dailies Jugantar and Amrita Bazar Patrika, is being converted into a retail-cum-commercial complex.

The 11-storeyed building at 41A, AJC Bose Road offering 215,000 sq ft of carpet area, had been referred to the debt-recovery tribunal, which constituted an asset sale committee and appointed a receiver to sell the property.

Tenders were invited and the consortium of Diamond Group was declared the “highest bidder”, agreeing to pay Rs 42.75 crore to the tribunal, according to A.N. Shroff, head of the private consortium.

“The condition of the building is good. The structure is more or less complete and we have to undertake the finishing work which would cost around Rs 15 crore,” Shroff tells Metro. Architect J.P. Agrawal is anchoring the design for the renovation and the interiors.

Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd will take up nearly 100,000 sq ft across three or four levels from the lower ground floor, while the rest of the G+10 building at 41A, AJC Bose Road will house offices.

“We are yet to finalise the exact format, but chances are it will be a combination of Pantaloons and Big Bazaar,” Kishore Biyani, managing director of Pantaloon Retail, said from Mumbai. The developers hope to start work next month and complete the project in six months. Parking space for 200 cars is also being created in the basement, a section of which used to house the printing press of the newspapers.

“We hope to hand over the retail section to Pantaloon Retail by December,” says Shroff. Diamond Group itself will take up 40,000 sq ft across the top two floors for its own offices, while the remaining floors will be leased out as commercial space.