Real estate company Omaxe is bringing Cannaught Place to Greater Noida by opening a mall called Omaxe Cannaught Place (OCP). Spread in the built-up area of 1.9 million sq.ft. with a gross leasable area of 1.2 million sq.ft., the mall is touted to be one of the most sought-after business, commercial and entertainment centre in North India. Built with a total investment of approx Rs 550 crore, the mall will become operational in the second quarter of 2013.
According to Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Head, Leasing, Omaxe Cannaught Place: “The biggest challenge faced while coming with this idea was to reinterpret a timeless, classic, and iconic structure like Connaught Place in a contemporary setting that has stood the test of time, and even after a century, it is recognised as one of the Asia’s most popular shopping destinations.”
“Omaxe has a history of keeping pace with its own established project innovation and its mission of changing the very face of Indian cities. OCP will have one of the largest shopping-cum-entertainment mall, ultra modern office space, multiplex, and a five-star hotel,” added Sharma.
Mall advisory company Beyond Squarefeet will re-orient, market, and lease OCP. According to Susil Dungarwal, Chief Mall Mechanic, Beyond Squarefeet, “Omaxe Connaught Place has a great potential to become a destination shopping center for which we will create not only a unique tenant mix but also help the group in bringing in various international formats and players. Our intention is to create a shopping center which will prompt people from over 50 kilometers to experience this destination mall.”
The structure of the mall has been prepared by L&T and designed by Hafeez Contractor. The mall will have a multi-level parking system along with surface parking which will accommodate 2,500 and 1,500 four- and two- wheelers, respectively. There will be 20 floors for office space and 6 floors including parking basement for retail. The average efficiency for vanilla store and office space will be 65:35 and for anchor it will be 70:30.
Talking about the location, Sharma said: “OCP will enjoy advantages like proximity to the proposed international airport, quality infrastructure like roads, 24-hour water and power supply, availability of social infrastructure, and growing preference of consumers staying in integrated and fully landscaped townships in Greater Noida.”
OCP will be home to approx 250 stores and has signed Easyday as the biggest hypermarket in Delhi-NCR. Besides, several other national and international brands have also been signed such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Costa Coffee, Woodland, Reebok, Puma, Adidas, Titan, Nike, and Timex. OCP will also house a five-screen multiplex spread across 50,000 sq.ft.
According to Sharma: “Omaxe gives value for product to its customers and with OCP, too, the company wants to assure that the investors get returns, which are exponential. In this regard, the company is offering 158 percent assured returns in 12 years which entails 14 percent per annum commitment charge in first two years and 13 percent per annum through lease rental in the next 10 years.”
On the rise of mall clustering situation in Greater Noida, with three other malls coming in the same location, Sharma said: “No doubt clustering of malls is worsening the situation because of lack of farsightedness of the developers and also because of the fierce competition to excel in this vertical before the recession period. After all hit and trials, we have all come to know the exact science of choosing the right location for a real shopping mall. As far as situation in Greater Noida is concerned, it is actually favouring our concept because only one big concept is going to be a hit among all and we are in process of making OCP a destination where we are able to attract customers beyond the immediate catchment. Any mall that has the capability to attract customers beyond the catchment can run the show irrespective of development of a number of malls.”
Sharma feels that a lot of exposure, money, reforms, and big retail companies are needed to cater to the growing population. “It also depends on how speedily government proceeds with opening up of multi-brand retail to foreign investment. Market condition is another factor that we will keep in mind before deciding upon the future of such huge projects in the retail real estate in India.”
-Priti Payal
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