Prestige Group to set up mall spread over 1 million square feet in city soon

Bengaluru-based Prestige Group will soon set up a mall with a multiplex, which will be spread over one million square feet, in the city

Bengaluru-based Prestige Group will soon set up a mall with a multiplex, which will be spread over one million square feet, in the city.

Prestige Group to set up mall spread over 1 million square feet in city soon

“We will soon be in Mumbai. We will launch nine malls spread over 8 million sqft, and one of them will be in Mumbai. We will formally make an announcement,” Muhammad Ali, chief executive officer – retail, Prestige Group, told HT from Bengaluru on Monday.

The group has already made a foray into the city’s real estate market with six ongoing projects, including Prestige BKC commercial and Prestige Mahalaxmi. It has planned projects in Bandra West, Byculla, Haji Ali, Juhu, Chembur, and Marine Lines.

In a complete rethink on the mall business, the group sold eight of its nine malls – each of 3 to 5 lakh square feet – in Bengaluru during the Covid-19 period and opted to focus on a one-million- square-feet mall, the largest in south Bengaluru. “People were scared of the virus and preferred to stay indoors and turned to online retailers. The e-commerce platforms made substantial investments to upgrade their platforms and posed a challenge. We felt the older model would not work any longer and decided to go for one-million-square-feet mall that would provide a grand world class experience to the customers. We then decided to exit from eight of the nine malls and completely reinvent the model,” Ali said, adding Prestige Group was the first to start a mall with a multiplex in February 2004 in Bengaluru.

The group came up with a new business model and last week opened the first mall in the new avatar under its brand Forum Mall in Prestige Falcon City at Kanakapura. “Earlier, shopping malls were about convenience bringing multiple retailers in apparel, food and beverages, and entertainment together. Now we have moved from convenience to making malls a high-experience destination,” he said.

At the new Forum Mall, the group has reduced the apparel retailer space to 60% from 80-90%, and expanded the food and beverages zone offering 40 dining options anchored by a 25,000 square feet micro-brewery and Dubai-based Lulu hyper market spread over 75,000 square feet.

To tap into the popularity of gaming among the youth, the mall has allocated 50,000 square feet for an arcade games and rides zone set up by Dubai-based Tridom. It has also set up Bengaluru’s largest 13-screen PVR multiplex with 4DX theatre, and brought in four big apparel anchor stores from Zaram H&M, Shoppers Stop, and Lifestyle.

Ali said the group had set up a 1,000-seater auditorium for live music performances, topped with a 500-seatre open air amphitheater and a 500-capacity banquet hall. “This is located in another building with a separate parking. We want all artistes and performers to make use of this facility. We opened the mall on Thursday, and we had two lakh visitors in four days.”

According to a recent Knight Frank report, India has 271 operational malls in top eight cities with total stock of 92.9 million square feet. The report described 57 of these or 21% as “ghost malls” comprising 8.4 million square feet in gross leasable space which have failed to be successful.