Nexus Select Trust, the Blackstone-backed real estate investment trust (REIT) focusing solely on retail space, is in an advanced stage of due diligence on three malls in the East for acquisition, with the target to triple the space under its ownership in the next 12-18 months.

Industry sources said at least one of them could be Diamond City North mall on Jessore Road near Nagerbazar, with the market expecting a deal value of ₹600 crore. Apart from Calcutta, cities under the radar of Nexus REIT are Patna, Ranchi and Guwahati.

“We have the board approval to carry out due diligence on three malls. We hope to close the transaction within a year,” Jayen Naik, president (operations) said, without elaborating further.

Nexus Select Trust has 19 malls under ownership across 15 cities, while its main sponsor, private equity giant Blackstone, also owns the South City mall in Calcutta. The REIT has a strong presence in the north (Delhi-NCR/Chandigarh), South (Forum malls) and the West.

South City continues to be outside the ownership of Nexus Trust, and consequently, there is only one operational mall in Bhubaneswar that the REIT owns in the east.

The management is confident of tripling its asset under ownership, sans South City, to 1.5 million square feet of gross leasable area within a year, once the proposed transactions under discussion take place. Real estate sources said Nexus, India’s largest mall operator, could be eyeing at least one more mall in Calcutta even as the property may take some time to come up.

Nexus, which has grown via acquisitions and intends to follow the same model going forward, plans to have a bouquet of 30 malls by 2030, adding 8 MSF area under ownership, upping from 11 MSF under portfolio.

South City upgrade

Even though South City remains outside the purview of Nexus REIT for the time being, Blackstone’s expertise in mall management will be deployed. “We usually take a mall which is 8-10 years old and upgrade it further. The same will be done with South City,” Naik said.

The upgrade will take place over the next 18-months but without closing down the property. The look and feel of the interior will go for a transformation, as well as the façade. “It is already one of the top five malls in India. We plan to take it to the next level,” Amit Kumar, executive director of South City mall, said.

On the cards will also be a loyalty programme for the visitors and an app for Nexus mall. Some of the initiatives being rolled out include ‘pink’ parking for women, dedicated zone for parking cars for pregnant women and geotagging to locate cars in parking areas, said Nishank Joshi, CMO of South City.

South City would be rebranded when Nexus REIT takes over the property from Blackstone in months to come.