Now small towns will also have value malls. Mirroring its cinema infrastructure model, E-CITY Ventures, part of the Essel Group, is setting up forty-five value malls aggregating ten million square feet in emerging real estate cities.
Mr. Atul Goel, CEO, E-CITY Ventures, said, “For this project, we are looking at equity funding of Rs 450 crore”. Further he added, “Talks with private equity players are in advanced stages”.
As part of its retail real estate, this venture will create twenty million square feet in two formats. One is lifestyle format, which is Fun Republic, and another in the value format, which is yet to be named. Mr. Goel said,“We will roll out the value format once the funding is in place”. In the lifestyle format, four million square feet of retail space is already in place with Fun Republics operational in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai. But Mr. Goel pointed that there has been a slump in real estate space for a variety of reasons. He pointed, “There were projects announced and not really taking off, at least some of them”. As for its cinema infrastructure, there are fifty Fun Cinemas in place and thirty-two will be added this year. In the value Talkie Town format, there are six screens.