Malls offer space to offices

Business Standard reports that several malls in north India are offering space to offices as retail demand is not as fast. Pranay Vakil, chairman at Knight Frank India, says “This is because of the over-supply of retail space. When a mall offers space to an office, it is a sign of sickness.” Several cities such as Gurgaon are soon to have an over abundance of retail space, several of which are being converted to mixed use such as a hotel, retail and office space.

According to real estate researchers, over 110 million square feet of space will be available across India for the organised retail industry by December 2008. The retail boom is spreading to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and 361 projects are under way. Of this, 227 are in the top seven cities and the rest in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.

Besides, 35 hypermarkets, 325 large department stores and over 10,000 outlets are also under development.

The biggest mall is coming up in Noida. This project, Citi Center, will have 5 million square feet. In Mumbai’s eastern suburbs, three malls are coming up and each of them will have more than 1 million square feet of space.

“The new and upcoming malls must be innovative if they want to succeed,” said another real estate expert. For instance, in Dubai, Mall of Emirates maintains a pocket of minus 2 degree Celsius in the centrally air-conditioned premises. The objective is to offer a different experience to shoppers in the desert city.

“Malls in India must also start experimenting. Without innovation, it will be difficult for many large malls to survive,” he said.