DLF Plans an Investment of Rs 2,500 Crore in Malls

                                                                                         

Real estate major DLF is all set to extend its retail footprint to tier-II and tier-III cities. And for this the company is planning to invest around Rs 2,500 crore in setting up destination malls and shopping centres in these cities.

A whopping 30 million sq ft of retail space is what DLF plans to develop over the next 36 months, spread across 30-35 cities. Some cities that have been identified for expansion include Amritsar, Jalandhar, Coimbatore, Kochi, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Nasik, Lucknow, Kanpur and Varanasi.

Apart from destination malls and shopping centres, other specialized formats such as luxury malls are also being planned along with Mall of India at Gurgaon — which is being dubbed as the world’s biggest mall.

In the words of DLF senior executive director (retail) Ajay Khanna, “We believe that there is a huge potential in tier-II and tier-III cities. To provide the initial depth to our retail plans, we will be spending close to Rs 1,250 crore each on building the two formats — destination malls and shopping centres — across the country. The development of destination malls and shopping centres will be spread over an area of 15 million sq ft each.”

The branding too will be differentiated according to the format and the shopping centres will be called City Centre or Galleria, Mr Khanna said. The company is yet to decide on the brand name for the larger destination malls. “The overall signature brand, of course, will be DLF in both the formats,” he added.

DLF sees a huge demand for the smaller shopping centres and is looking at building them in the central business districts. The larger destination malls, on the other hand, will be developed in the more spacious and strategic suburban areas to cater to a bigger catchment of the community in the respective cities.

“The destination mall format will be more of a sold model where retailers will be able to buy the spaces within the mall while the shopping centre will revolve around the theme of leased model,” Mr Khanna said.

The group’s first shopping centre outside Gurgaon is slated to open next month at Shalimar Bagh in Delhi.

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Source: IndiaRealEstateblog

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