These Malls Got a New Lease of Life

Here's a list of once-failing malls in the country that have been successfully revived to become thriving businesses, again

-  Shiv Joshi

Swiss author and entrepreneur Rolf Dobeli has an interesting observation about shopping centres: "If you spend fifteen minutes in a shopping mall," he said, "You will pass more people than our ancestors saw during their entire lifetimes".

Malls today have become social hubs, thriving with people and pulsating with vibrant energy Unfortunately, not all malls that are built, end up being social centres. While some fail to pick up from the beginning, a few others get off to a great start only to spin into a downward spiral with time to become ghost malls-those with occupancy below 60%.

"Ghost malls are characterized as malls with over 40% vacancy due to challenges such as inadequate planning and the absence of key tenants, these have emerged as a result of the changing retail landscape influenced by e-commerce and the pandemic. Developers need to reimagine malls, focusing on experiential value to attract  customers seeking quality time, not just transactions," said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO - India, South-East Asia, Middle East &

Africa, CBRE, a global commercial real estate services and investments company. In 2022, about 57 malls, or 21% of malls, across the top eight cities in India were in a dilapidated state, causing losses of above $524 million as per Think India, Think Retail 2022 report by Knight Frank. The highest number of such malls are in Delhi NCR, followed by Pune and Hyderabad.

"In most of the so-called dead malls, there are always some layout issues, which have to be identified properly and aligned in a way which is easy for the customer," said Susil Dungarwal, Chief Mall Mechanic at Beyond Squarefeet Advisory Pvt. Ltd. that specialises in mall management and revival.