Due to its close proximity to Mumbai, Thane has witnessed rapid urbanisation and commercialisation over the last few years to become one of the fastest growing cities in India.
So far a dominantly industrial town which “employed a million people”, Thane is fast converting into a mid premium residential hub. Better transport facilities, creation of job opportunities, improving infrastructure, lesser congestion, availability of land more greenery and an affordable place to live vs. Mumbai have created a lot of demand and prompted people to opt for the city for permanent dwellings.
As per Census 2001, the population of the city was 12.6 lakh. The current population of Thane city is estimated at approximately 17.5 lakh, a 39 per cent growth over the last eight years.
Over the past few years, Thane city has undergone a remarkable transformation where civic infrastructure, trade and construction have received a major fillip and with the influx of corporate executives, Thane is evolving as a cosmopolitan location from its erstwhile predominantly Maharashtran culture.
The local residential topography seems to have changed quite a lot over the last couple of years and is set to change quite dramatically over the next few years. With new residential property rates hovering in the range of about Rs 3000 – Rs 5,500 per sq.ft, the apartments present an attractive option when compared to similar options in Mumbai.
Areas like Hiranandani Meadows, Hiranandani Estate, Raheja Gardens, Cosmos Hills, Vasant Vihar, Siddhachal, are some of the key areas in the cluster which have an up-market catchment . The renewed interest in Thane by potential home seekers has sparked off a slew of prestigious residential projects by reputed developers looking to grab a piece of this growing market. Leading this list are several big names like Hiranandani, Tata Housing, Kalpataru, Puraniks, Godrej Properties, Everest Developers, Kanakia, Neelkanth, Lodhas, and Runwal. Prominent areas of Thane city such as Ghodbunder road, Wagle estate, Pokhran road No. 1 & 2, Kolshet Road, Eastern expressway and most recently the Mumbai Nasik highway are becoming the growth corridors in the city.
As of now, Thane does not have a great deal of organized retail activity with thus far the organized spaces largely planned as local market complexes or are multiplex dominated. However this is likely to change in the next three years as the retail potential of Thane finally starts to become visible and quality organized retail space becomes available.
When it comes to shopping, Gokhale road and Ram Maruti Road account for most of the shopping footfalls currently with rentals between Rs. 100 to Rs. 250 per sq. ft. per month on carpet.
Slowly but surely with the arrival of new malls and shopping centers, organized retail will capture a significant share of the catchment. The currently available shopping centre space of approximately 8 lac GLA is likely to be in the range of 25-28 lac GLA by 2011-12.
| Operational Malls | |||
| Name of the Mall | Location | Approximate GLA (In Sq.ft) / planned GLA | Key Tenants present / likely tenants |
| Eternity Mall | Teen Haath Naka, LBS Marg | 1,89,000 | Cinemax, Giggles, Globus |
| Cinewonder | Ghodbunder Road | 1,00,000 | Cinemax, Pizza Hut, CCD |
| Lake City Mall Phase 1 | Kapurbawadi Circle | 1,50,000 | Big Bazaar, Woodland, McDonald’s, The Loot |
| Korum Mall | Eastern Expressway | 4,00,000 | Star Bazaar, Westside |
| Upcoming Malls | |||
| Viva City Mall | Eastern Expressway | 10,00,000 | Shoppes Stop, HyperCity, PVR |
| R Mall | Ghodbunder Road | 3,25,000 | Hometown, More, Central |
| Lake City Phase II | Kapurbawadi Circle | 3,00,000 | |
Good levels of organized retail growth can be seen on Godhbunder Road and the Eastern Expressway which are the major roads leading out of Thane and the fastest growing corridors having many new residential and commercial projects. IRCI (an IRIS proprietary index which benchmarks a site/ city zone on life-stage, lifestyle, richness profile, catchment size vs. competition and psychographic makeup) benchmarks the Thane catchment at 3.5 stars out of 5 showing a good potential for modern retail in Thane.
An analysis of modern shopping options shows all round gaps exist in key product categories with weak presence of branded players in apparel, footwear, accessories, leisure, restaurants, gaming, and CDIT.
An analysis of consumer behavior in the catchment shows current buying behavior being high on functionality with value stores such as Big Bazaar, and Dmart highest on popularity. However, of late, emotional payoffs have started becoming important with a good desire and openness for brands.
Most consumers feel that Thane does not have the adequate shopping. R Mall and Nirmal Lifestyle mall in Mulund currently attract significant footfalls from Thane. Across demographics, consumers feel there are few options for entertainment and eating out in Thane and tend to go out to Mumbai for entertainment and F&B.
To conclude, one can safely say the Thane catchment is clearly an “opportunities” catchment and is all about the potential in the next few years, so retailers “watch out for Thane”!
By Vineet Dawar and Vivek Kumar, IRIS
About IRIS Retail:
IRIS Retail is a market intelligence company in retail, having a unique dossier of specialised, multi-dimensional intelligence processes that address retailers in strategic and tactical decision making. It brings forth retail domain knowledge coupled with market research techniques and methodologies that lead to informed decision making on business issues.
IRIS Retail has a specialised framework for studying the retail potential of shopping centre sites which has been used for over 40 prospective retail sites in India.
