High street retail set to take off big
developers including DLF, M3M, Omaxe, Group 108, and Dhillon Group looking to develop about three million square feet of retail projects with open spaces in the next 2-3 years.
There is a significant demand for high street retail space across Indian cities as the supply remains constrained with most developers focused on building large shopping malls, industry insiders said.
India has only 13.2 million sq ft of high street space available for retailers, while malls occupy seven times that space at 93 million sq ft, according to data by Cushman & Wakefield.
At the same time, potential consumption at a high street is almost three times more than in a mall, the consultancy firm said.
«India lacks modern organised high streets despite old markets doing quite well,» said Karan Dhillon, owner of Dhillon Group. «As a developer, we realised it and planned high street retail in Chandigarh, adding 1.5 million sq ft,» he said.
Brands opening outlets in this new high street space in Chandigarh include Uniqlo, Starbucks, Decathlon and McDonald's, Dhillon said.
DLF recently launched commercial plotted development in Gurugram, spread across 8.69 acres.
This will be developed as high street market on the lines of DLF Galleria, which commands rental at par with the grade A malls in the region, company officials said.
M3M recently announced a luxury high street retail and 'Pentsuites' — or, serviced studio apartments — as part of a commercial project in Noida. The project will be developed on a three-acre land parcel with saleable space of about 900,000 square feet — 550,000 square feet in retail and 350,000 square feet for studio apartments.
