WHEN IT comes to the retail industry City businessmen can certainly see the big picture. Even as Treasure Island holds the City in thrall work on the Jhabua Kothi mall-cum-multiplex is moving at full tilt.
The proposal for the 74,000 square feet multiplex has been submitted to the Town and Country Planning Department and is almost certain to be cleared at a meeting to be held on May 6.
If it gets the nod, the Jhabua Kothi mall would become the second multiplex in the City owned by the Kalanis, who also operate the controversial Treasure Island multiplex at MG Road.
It would also make the Kalani group perhaps the only promoters in the country to tie up with two leading multiplex chains: Atul Ruia’s Phoenix Mills which will operate the Jhabua Kothi screens and Delhi-based PVR group which runs the 1300-seat Treasure Island multiplex.
The mall will also mark the debut for Indore Central, a large format store along the lines of similar shopping-cum-entertainment centres developed by Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited in Hyderabad and Bangalore, which will be the anchor tenant for the property. The Hindustan Times first broke the story about the proposed mall at Jhabua Kothi on January 9, 2006.
The mall proposal will be taken up at a meeting to be presided over by Joint Director, Town and Country Planning, VP Kulshreshtha on Saturday. Municipal Commissioner Vinod Sharma as well as senior officials from Fire and Traffic departments will also be present on the occasion. Unlike Treasure Island, which continues to make news for all the wrong reasons, the Jhabua Kothi mall is likely to be cleared without demur.
{{/usCountry}}The mall proposal will be taken up at a meeting to be presided over by Joint Director, Town and Country Planning, VP Kulshreshtha on Saturday. Municipal Commissioner Vinod Sharma as well as senior officials from Fire and Traffic departments will also be present on the occasion. Unlike Treasure Island, which continues to make news for all the wrong reasons, the Jhabua Kothi mall is likely to be cleared without demur.
{{/usCountry}}“Treasure Island required the State Government’s intervention as it involved a change in land use. But the Jhabua mall has been proposed at a site designated for commercial usage by the City development plan so it will definitely be cleared”, said a top official speaking on condition of anonymity.
To be spread over 74,000 square feet the Jhabua Kothi mall is a three-way joint venture between Kshitij, Pantaloon’s real estate fund, Phoenix Mills multiplex developer Atul Ruia and Naman Mall Management Private Limited (NMMPL), a new outfit floated by Treasure Island promoter Manish Kalani.
The project would be a ‘seamless mall’. That means instead of leasing out shops independently the mall would be leased to a single entity, which may then either sub-lease units or avail the entire property itself.