Ravi Karandeekar's Pune Real Estate Market News Blog: Future Group's Kshitij Venture Capital Fund, piloting retail real estate development will launch its first malls at Ahmedabad and Vadodara in January

Monday, September 10, 2007

Future Group's Kshitij Venture Capital Fund, piloting retail real estate development will launch its first malls at Ahmedabad and Vadodara in January

A Rs 350-crore real estate asset management fund, Kshitij Venture Capital Fund's focus is on the tier II cities and mini metros of India.

sub-5 lakh square feet malls:

The development of the malls, all in the sub-5 lakh square feet category, will extend KVCF’s retail footprint to mini metros such as Mysore and Thiruvananthapuram in southern India.

A hitherto subdued retail market such as Cochin will climb higher up the consumer ladder when a 4.22 lakh square feet mall becomes operational in that city by March 2009.

Indore, Lucknow, Mysore, Jaipur are other cities on KVCF’s realty radar.

Plaza Centers plans to develop 50 malls in tier II, III cities

Plaza Centers is Central and Eastern Europe's largest shopping mall developer. It is a subsidiary of London Stock Exchange listed, Dutch firm, Elbit Medical Imaging.

Plaza Centers has five shopping malls under various stages of construction in Indian cities and hopes to get big with developing at least 50 malls in tier II, III cities over the next five to seven years with an investment of nearly Rs 5,000 crore.

Dutch mall builder has already tied up with real estate developer Panchshil and has already begun land development at Koregaon Park in Pune. It plans to start projects in the southern cities of Bangalore, Madras, Trivandrum and Cochin.

"50 Indian cities ideal for retail sector": Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj's Report:

Highlighting the growth opportunities and the emerging geography of Indian retail and property market activity, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj released its World Winning Cities report on Indian Retail. The report entitled "The Geography of Opportunity - The India 50" is the first report in a series on Indian Retail Futures.

It highlights the significant opportunities for both domestic and international retailers and property investors across a broad range of geographies and formats.

Big scope in small-town mall projects:

Real estate majors Unitech, Parsvnath and Omaxe are scouting for greenfield mall projects in smaller towns and cities for a faster roll out of their nation-wide retail footprint.

Unitech Limited has even set aside Rs 500 crore for a majority stake in a greenfield retail project or may even go in for a complete buy out in upcoming metro cities like Pune, Nagpur and Indore. Developers such as Parsvanath and Omaxe claim that there are several proposals on their table from local developers for such buy-outs

Rail to Retail: Indian Railways!

The latest Indian Railways venture: to offer retail biggies a chance to convert spaces in and around their properties into profitable ventures...The Indian Railways has nearly 7,000 stations, 300 railyards and 2,300 goods sheds along 63,000 km of tracks criss-crossing India. And 7 cinema halls.

Your neighbourhood kirana store has survived the onslaught of modern retail

At least, till now. The brunt is being borne by general stores and chemists, which have seen a decline in sales on a year-on-year basis. Independent, family-run kiranas (traditional grocers) , general stores and chemists make up India’s traditional retail universe, and still account for over 95% of the $300-billion retail sales in the country.