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.
