Festival City to come up in 2 years

The Festival City project, claimed to be the biggest mall of Punjab by Aeren R Enterprises with an investment of over Rs 250 crore, will be functional by the end of 2008.

Mr Vivek Srivastava, vice-president(Marketing and Corporate Communications), said in an interview to Tribune News Service that the company would strive to offer a balanced composition of shopping, entertainment and leisure in its project, which was based on the principle of 'malls within a mall'.

"Over 50 per cent of the leasing is already over and names like IMAX, Fun Cinemas, Shopper's Stop, Pantaloons and various others have already signed up. The final tenant mix would be decided only by 2008 so that we are able to offer the latest brands," he said.

With Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) having been permitted, the company expected a wide range of new brands to start operations in India and said it was keen on roping in new ones. "Besides the basic theme, malls in the coming years would differentiate through a variety of brands they offer, which would benefit companies as well as consumers."

Aeren planned not to lease out or sell the entire space, but to retain some part of it so as to earn higher returns and also make the necessary changes if required.

Mr Srivastava said an exhaustive study by Hudema Consulting done for the company projected a stupendous rise in the annual income and retail potential and in retail expenditure, which was what made the company buoyant on success of its mall.

"Ludhiana is a prosperous city with immense potential.Besides, we also expect customers from surrounding cities like Jalandhar and Chandigarh."

When asked about nearly 20 malls coming up in this region within the next two-three years, he said the malls that had a right tenant mix and good facilities had very high chances of success as the prevailing environment did not offer a very comfortable and enjoyable shopping experience.

The Festival City, besides exclusive kids, fashion, hospitality and leisure zones, would have Punjab's first IMAX theatre with seven screen multiplex, an ice-skating ring and a gaming zone.

Mr Srivastava said the ambience in the mall would by in sync with its name and there would be different zones, each bearing design and architecture portraying Indian festivals like Divali, Dasehra, Holi and many others.