As shopping mall culture gains momentum in city, old malls are tuning themselves for a makeover.
At present, the total mall space in the city is over 40 lakh sqft spread across six malls. Except Lulu Mall and recently-launched Centre Square Mall, all the other six malls are getting ready to re-launch to attract more customers.
Apart from this, two malls with 30 lakh sqft space will come up in Kochi city soon. As per industry estimates, about 10 malls with a total area of about six million sqft will be added to Ernakulam district in the next 3-4 years.
“The business dynamics of the mall industry is very active and keeps changing constantly with times. A good mall has to go through the process of the restructuring to keep in tune with the times.
Restructuring helps the mall to be a successful. Some of the best malls in the world have gone through restructuring in order to ensure success,” said Susil S Dungarwal, Chief Mall Mechanic, Beyond Squarefeet Advisory Private Limited, a mall advisory company. Bay Pride Mall at Marine Drive with 40,000 sqft space, which was the first mall in the city and opened in 2006 is going to launch more entertainment area and space for kids games.
“Though Bay Pride Mall is only a shopping centre and not a huge mall the business has been steady. We are going to give a make over to it by adding spaces for entertainment,” said Riaz Ahamed, managing director, Abad Group, which owns the mall.
He revealed that the 2.80 lakh sqft Abad Nucleus Mall at Maradu will also undergo a makeover soon. “A multiplex with two screen will come up there. Efforts are on to bring more brands to the mall and more space would be provided for games. As part of marketing we are conducting regular programmes at mall,” he said. Oberon Mall has recently appointed a consultancy firm for re-structuring the mall. The Forum Mall by Prestige group with a total built up area of 17 lakh sq ft and Garden Galleria by Unitech group with 14.5 lakh sqft will come up in bypass without much delay.