Benz

Highway malls is the next big thing amongst real estate developers serving as a one-stop shop for those travelling on the highway. There is no doubt in my mind that success of this new retail format can be foreseen with the fact that most of the top national and international brands are jumping in to take a pie in all the upcoming highway malls across India.

The concept of the highway mall, though new to India is fast catching up with more and more top international brands signing up with developers of these malls.

Gurgaon at this moment of time has become the hot spot of malls, also other side of Delhi is coming up with highway malls, namely, the north of Delhi border, Sonepat and beyond.

It is worthwhile pointing that from a handful of malls in the mid 90s, India has more than 100 malls spread across large and small cities. Generally speaking, developers have been experimenting with different retail formats now and then to offer something new to the customers like specialty stores, department stores, hypermarket, but highway malls is the new retail mantra that has caught the fancy of developers right now.

Big developers such as TDI, Ansals, Omaxe Group & Parsvnath Group have already realized the potential of these brands. Brands like , Adidas, McDonald’s, Reebok, Provogue, Adlabs have already signed up with the developers for a space in highway malls.

The very fact that these leading brands are eager to be a part of the highway mall culture is because the land cost in metros is high and the return on investment is low as compared to non-metros, hence it becomes difficult for the brands to sustain themselves in the long run.

Another significant benefit of big format highway malls is that zoning can be created with utmost ease. Also, taking into account the burgeoning purchasing power even in the suburban areas and a change in the lifestyle preferences of the consumer there, developers are optimistic about the success of the project expecting a footfall of more than 20,000 people per day including local residents and highway traffic.