Mall Mania

An investment splurge by private equity majors and international wealth funds has breathed fresh life into sluggish traditional retail.

- Aarti Dua

The concourse at the Seawoods suburban railway station in Navi Mumbai may seem an unlikely venue for leading Indian and international brands to vend their wares. But take the escalator, and you will be instantly transported to the glitzy granite-and-glass interior of an opulent shopping mall. From Sephora and Mac to Forever 21 and H&M to Big Bazaar and Lifestyle, the storied brands are jostling for attention at the swanky Seawoods Grand Central Mall.

The Seawoods Mall opened last year after private equity major Blackstone Group acquired it from L&T Realty for ₹1,450 crore in 2016. And in many ways, it represents the new buzz in the country’s retail mall space. The year 2017 has seen 6.4 million sq. ft of new retail space completed, according to property consultancy firm JLL India, making it the highest net absorption in a year since 2011. The sector will pick up the pace further as more than 20 million sq. ft of mall space is slated to come up in the top seven cities (Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata) by the end of 2019. Of this, 11 million sq. ft should be completed in 2018 alone. Commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield estimates around 34 new malls (13.6 million sq. ft of new mall space) will be operational in the top eight cities (including Ahmedabad) by 2020 with Hyderabad alone getting 11 new establishments .

“There is a definite upswing in the retail mall sector,” says Pankaj Renjhen, Managing Director, Retail Services, at JLL India. Arvind Singhal, Chairman of the retail consultancy firm Technopak, concurs. “We are beginning to see excitement building up once again in the sector.”

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