If the big cities have Fun Republic , the small towns will get value malls. Mirroring its cinema infrastructure model ? lifestyle Fun Cinemas and value Talkie Town brands ? E-CITY Ventures, part of the Essel Group, is setting up 45 value malls aggregating 10 million sq ft in Tier II and Tier- III cities.
?For this project, we are looking at equity funding of Rs 450 crore,? said Atul Goel, CEO, E-CITY Ventures. ?Talks with private equity players are in advanced stages,? he added.
As part of its retail real estate, E-CITY Ventures will create 20 million sq ft in two formats ? lifestyle format, which is Fun Republic , and another in the value format, which is yet to be named. ?We will roll out the value format once the funding is in place,? said Goel. In the lifestyle format, 4 million sq ft of retail space is already in place with Fun Republics operational in Ahmedabad, Delhi , Chandigarh and Mumbai. ?We are under construction in Jammu and Coimbatore and will build a further 6 million sq ft in this format.?
But Goel admitted that there has been a slowdown in the real estate space for a variety of reasons. ?There were projects announced and not really taking off, at least some of them,? he said. ?Retailers are cautious because underlying costs of real estate are very high and unsupportive of their business model. Then, promoters have built up land banks and are left with limited funds to start the project. Some real estate companies had IPO plans which haven?t taken off due to market sentiments.?
As for its cinema infrastructure, there are 50 Fun Cinemas in place and 32 will be added this year. In the value Talkie Town format, there are 6 screens. ?Three more are going to be operational soon and we will add 25 more to this brand this year,? added Goel.