The Celebration Mall- Amritsar

Visiting Amritsar? Then be prepared for a shopping spree like no other you have ever been on. The shopping streets of Amritsar- Hall Bazaar and Katra Jaimal singh, are lined with traditional ethnic wear, with all kind of varieties. But if you are someone who wants everything under one roof, and that also in the comfort of air conditioning, dust proof, noise proof environment then head straight towards, The Celebration Mall.

Opened on 17th Dec’ 2009, it enjoys a prime city centre location at Gagan Chowk. One can expect a bustling atmosphere inside. The name of the mall was coined to signify celebration in everyone’s life, vivaciousness, bustling energy and a modern lifestyle. This is exactly what the mall provides today to all its visitors.

All the mall’s seven floors are filled to the core with shops, events, fun, entertainment and excitement around every corner.

But just about eighteen months ago, it was an all empty vertical concrete, haunted structure, which seemed impossible to be leased ever!!!





There were few important decisions in time which saved the life of this mall and made it today a landmark in Amritsar. The lessons learnt are amazing. First four anchors were signed and positioned rightly-- Cinnepolis, the world’s sixth largest multiplex operator, Mc Donalds, Pind Balluchi and SRS Value Bazaar.

Second floor was dedicated to local retail and named as Raunaqaa Punjab Diyan. Food court on third floor- Melting Pot was designed and operated by developer himself. Then gradually many mini anchors were signed from M & S to Reliance Footprints. From Woodland to Crazy Cars & Funzone.

Food Court- Melting Pot

For the launch of mall, as a prelaunch event on 19th Nov’ 09, we had a local retailers meet in one of the halls of Cinnepolis. This created a great hype and buzz in the town for the project. More than 500 people turned for this event. Here the formal launch date was announced as 17th Dec’ 09 for the project and promise kept later.

Formally the project was launched with great pomp and show on 17th Dec' 09.The whole mall was decorated like a bride. And there after there has been no looking back for the project.

During the times of recession and when other developers complained of less footfall, TCM was over crowded and full with difficult to control crowd.There has been a total mall promotion calendar in place with all kind of events taking place like: -

• Winter Carnival, 
• Mr. Miss Amritsar, 
• Mom & Me, 
• Drawing Competition, 
• Baisakhi Night, 
• Summer Surprise and much more.....

Today it is leased to all top national and international retailers. Pictures shall speak more than words.

DLF – Promenade Mall

Recently visited DLF – Promenade Mall and was overwhelmed to see the beautiful flourishing property, with best of the retail mix. Visiting Promenade is to enter a world apart. A unique commingling of eastern and western sensibilities inspires the rare and wonderful design by Architect Mohit Gujral. The design of the entire mall is both commercially and culturally focused.

Located in the heart of South Delhi, it offers an elegant and magnificent shopping experience, as it houses some of the well known international brands, truly a shopping paradise for brand name lovers. In the main atrium is the attraction of Cinnabon, the American chain of coffee shop, best treat, a special and perfect way to enjoy coffee or tea with friends here.

Cosmetics & beauty care at the main entrance, then two arms going side ways having a mix of apparel and footwear, brands like- Meen Bazaar, CK, Kalpana, FCUK,Color Plus, Aldo, M & B, and Woodland. In the main spine we see apparels and sports wear- Mango, Promod, DKNY, Aftershock, Reebok and Adidas. In the rear corridoor we have some more apparels- Mothercare,  Alcott, Surreal, Esprit, W, Giovani, Satya Paul and Biba. Not to miss on Ground Floor is Swarovski,Orra, Monpri and Ethos. Dyal Opticals and Sunglass hut. Da Milano, DKNY and Guess accessories. Zara the international departmental store shall be the latest addition.

Placement and positioning of entire trade mix has been very thoughtfully done. The strategically positioned Le Marche, supermarket next to home furnishing stores- Rosebys, Sia Homes, Three sixty degress on the first floor, ensures footfall to this corner of the mall. More of apparels- Cantabil, Chemistry, Lerros, Jasmine, Jashn, Tommy Hilfiger, UCB, VAn Heusen, Ritu Kumar, Numero Uno, Louis Phillipe etc. Kids Wear, Lingerie, Electronics on First Floor.

DT Cinemas is an ultimate theatre experience; it takes the multiplex viewing to the next level.

Food court is a gastronomic delight, with the wonderful blend of finest cuisines, specially the layout, all counters facing the seating in-between. From food court itself the entry to DT Cinemas is another wonderful way of connecting Multiplex and food court. All well known F & B, brands under one roof such as Haldiram, Mc Donalds, Arabian Nites, Bakers Street, Cafe Brown Sugar, Ooh la la, Tikka Town, Dominos Pizza, Subway etc. The variety of food is not only available in the Food Court but otherwise as well, India's best rated Super Specialty Restaurants such as Veda, Taman Gang, T.G.I. FRIDAY’S, Pizza Marzona, Italia, Tasty Tangles etc. amongst others.

Seeing all this running and operational mall reminds me of good olden days way back in April 2004, when the entire project was on paper, and launched to retailers. Got quite a positive response from all national and international brands. Despite the rentals being enormously higher as compared to other competitors of that time.

On 17th Feb’ 2005 the formal launch of the project was done, along with bhoomi pujan on site. By that time almost 70% project was leased. But that did not ensure the success of the project. As just after the construction had begun the project went into an environmental concern by local residents and was delayed by more than two years. By that time the recession had hit and the retailers were in their own tunes of recession. To make this project a success, up and running the way we see it today, was definitely not an easy task for DLF, they had to enter in many different rental arrangements with tenants and make the mall operational somehow. Great Achievement. A nice lesson which other developers should learn, if you don’t bend you break. You have to adapt and adjust for your own survival.

Paras Downtown Square - Zirakpur

A little more than four years back, Dec’ 05, when I left DLF and joined Paras Buildtech, responsible for leasing their upcoming shopping mall Paras Downtown Square, I was given a 4.5 lac sq.ft of mall, all floor plates of almost 65000 sq.ft size completely empty, no brands signed. A major challenging task was lying in front of me, and I was totally clueless from where to start? In a city like Zirakpur, which was totally unheard amongst retailers at that point of time.

So we had to sell to the retailers not only, No. 1 the Location – (there were other developers in the main city Chandigarh, including DLF, TDI and others), No. 2 mall concept, but also No. 3 the developer, since Paras was unheard as a developer in 2005, they were known for Dairy products, but not real estate.

To make this big task into smaller segments, we started from the Big boxes in place first rather than going and pitching to smaller vanilla stores.

The mall positioning and its selling pitch was done as: right combination of retail mix meeting a vast array of the needs and wants of consumers in the trade area from grocery shopping to apparel shopping, known brands in Fashion, Lifestyle, F&B and Entertainment to be housed together at one place. Built in an epicurean style, this mall will provide a world-class platform to all the retailers. The location was pitched as The strategic location at Zirakpur on the Y Fork of Delhi-Chandigarh-Shimla highway, the highway from Delhi that trifurcates to Chandigarh, Shimla in Himachal and Patiala in Punjab, it shall target a base of clients from Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and especially in the tricity area of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula, as well as from other nearby towns. Conceived as a world-class shopping mall Paras Downtown Square shall have a majestic atrium with translucent ceiling, which will be the center point for shoppers giving a true international feel.

With this pitch in hand we got Future Group agreed to do Big Bazaar- Hyper market and Pantaloons- Departmental store. Almost a lac sq.ft together, Simultaneously the Multiplex was closed with Adlabs- now Big cinema- 35000 sq.ft of area and then the Food Court & Children’s entertainment center, spread over an area of more than 23,000 Sq. Ft . The major vanilla brands that signed with us include Reebok, Cafe Coffee Day, Liberty, Reid & Taylor, Nike, Woodland, Provogue, CTC, Meena Bazaar, Villa Appearances and many more.


The project won the Best Commercial Property Award at the Indian Property Awards 2007 in November 2007.

Finally Mall opened on January 21’ 2009 with the opening of the hyper market, Big Bazaar. Spread over 60,000 sq.ft, the Big Bazaar opened to the beat of Punjabi dhol and colourful images of Punjabi families on its signage, as people flocked in to have the first hand experience of buying to their hearts fill at the most-talked about value chain.

And today with proper retail mix, and anchors in place the mall is doing well. Mall leasing is just one aspect for the success of a mall but running a mall efficiently with all tenants doing good sales, getting regular foot fall, mall maintenance and its management, events and promotions in the mall, all this together confirms the success of the mall.