Realty major DLF will be opening its sixth mall in Delhi-NCR by May next year with an investment of 300 crore. “We are already in the process of completing another mall in Delhi called the Emporio at Chanakyapuri in Central Delhi. It’s a smaller mall and it should be open by next May,” DLF chief executive for rental business, Sriram Khattar said. Besides, the Gurgaon-based developer will be opening the 1,700-crore ‘Mall of India’ in Noida by November this year.
The company claims that the 2 million sq ft mall will be the biggest in the country. “We launched the project in 2012 and now are set to open it. By October-end, we are set to open the cinemas and between November 20 and 27 will be the grand opening,” DLF senior vice-president & head of leasing and mall management, Pushpa Bector said.
The ‘Mall of India’ has a leasable area of about 2 million sq ft and DLF has leased over 90 per cent of this already, she claimed. It will have over 450 retail units, a seven-screen cinema, and a food court with about 1,000 seats. “At the Mall of India, we have got 40 per cent of space dedicated to food and entertainment,” Bector said, adding that the new property will have 22 casual dining restaurants. The country’s largest developer is expecting 200 crore rental income per year from this mall and expects it to break-even in five to six years.
Even though many mall developers are struggling with dwindling footfalls and revenues, Khattar said revenue growth for DLF has been 10-12 per cent. DLF said if it has to expand, it will only look at tier I cities for now. Bector said Tier I cities, especially Delhi-NCR, suits it as customers have better purchasing power.
“We like to concentrate in Tier I, especially NCR, because the spending power is high. The kind of investments we are putting in, it gets justified with the kind of returns we can look forward to, because there is consumption,” she said, adding that they would look to consolidate and strengthen their position in the NCR region and then look at other regions.
Asked if the e-commerce boom has had any impact on leasing, Khattar said malls may look at reducing the offering for groceries, furniture, books and electronics going forward as sale of these items is high online. “Certain commoditised apparel or fashion may go online but aspirational and luxury fashion going online is very limited,” he said, adding that e-commerce will constitute about 7-12 per cent of the retail market.