The recent cloud surrounding the poor to dismal performance of a majority of the malls that opened their doors over the past one year does not seem to be deterring DB Realty to give a second thought to its plans of launching India’s largest mall in Mumbai. Scheduled to open its doors to retailers and brands in 2009, Orchid Ozone from DB Realty is confident of changing the mall culture in India with its revolutionary malls.
The mall is humungous in its size with about 2.5 million square feet of space which would see a business hotel as well along with gaming zones, kid’s play and care zone and also an ice-skating rink along with a 14-screen megaplex. The project is being designed by Hafeez Contractor and according to the group, with this mall, they will be introducing a lot of ‘firsts’ in India – one of them being an ice-skating rink. The investment towards the project is estimated to be about Rs 700 crore and according to Nabil Patel, Director, DB Realty, “the funding has been generated through internal accruals.” The anchors who have already booked space here include Shopper’s Stop, Pantaloons and HyperCity. The mall will also facilitate parking of around 2,500 cars in the zone meant for it.
Citing reasons for initiating the launch of India’s largest mall in the form of Orchid Ozone, Patel shares “As Indian consumers move up the value chain, large format retail combined with themed luxury environments will drive Indian retailing. Our team forecasted the emergence of this phenomenon with the trend in the real estate sector to create a unique retail DNA. We are confident that once completed, Orchid Ozone will be a jewel in Mumbai’s crown.”
Sharing his views on the future of malls in India, Patel says, “I see a future just for larger malls to survive. The smaller players will gradually fizzle away.”
-Zainab Morbiwala, Mumbai Bureau
