FORUM

Date of birth: March 7, 2003.

Address: 10/3 Elgin Road.

Immediate impact: The first real mall in town made Elgin Road the happening stretch of south Calcutta. And it drove the traffic in the area crazy.

Promoted by: Rahul Saraf.

Walkthrough: Forum, complete with a multiplex, retail and food court, had the first-mover advantage in a city not exposed to a mall. Spread over 200,000 sq ft (approx), Forum offers a basement + ground + six-floor format. With three entry and exit points, the floors are accessible through elevator, escalator and staircase.

Parking: Around 220 cars across 20,000 sq ft.

Timings: 10am to 8pm (for retail)

Add-on: The mall is in the midst of mission extension, on an adjacent plot. To be called The Courtyard At Forum, it should be unveiled in January 2009. “It is an effort to add that premium touch to the life of a Calcuttan,” says Ujjal, the pointman at Forum. On board will be a host of international and premium national brands. The Courtyard will offer more than 40,000 sq ft of “pure retailing” spread over three levels and around 160,000 sq ft of parking space for at least 450 cars over five levels.

Footfalls: Monday and Tuesday between 9,000 and 11,000; Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 15,0000 to 19,000; weekends 22,000 to 23,000.

Big brands: Shoppers Stop, Swarovski, Ritu Kumar, Satya Paul, Pepe, Levi’s, Nike, Reebok, United Colours of Benetton, Woodland, Rado, Provogue, Adidas, Police, Hidesign...

Food stops: The foodcourt Burp! is on the fifth floor. Other food stops include Oh! Calcutta, Starstruck, Biscotti, Baskin Robbins and McCain.

Screens: INOX has four screens squeezed into 30,000 sq ft, with a seating capacity of 1,015.

Bonus points: The first to take the plunge and show the way; located in the heart of the city, so most convenient for office and college-goers; no problems in locating a shop as sab kuch dikhta hai from the middle of the mall.

Negative marking: On crowded days, too little elbow room inside and too little parking space outside; exit-entry a nightmare, especially if you are caught in the traffic-switchover time; the washrooms need more attention.

Mallspeak: “Back then, when we started, Calcutta was looked upon as anything but a booming destination. It was believed to be a city of lazy Bengalis. We went out to the market to say, despite the negativity, there is this huge bright side completely unexplored. We broke the ice. Our niche clients keep coming back,” says a spokesperson for Forum.

Retailspeak: “Because of the location we would like to be a part of this mall on any given day,” says Ameeta Raha of Anokhi. “Apart from being so centrally located, it is the closest mall to a Metro station.”

Munchspeak: “We are dependent on the footfalls of the mall. The high parking fee pinches, but things should look up with the new building,” says Bunty Sethi, proprietor of Starstruck.

Peoplespeak: For Theatre Road residents Krishan, Trupti and Trishi Mohta, Forum is “a weekend recreation” destination. Trupti likes shopping at Bizarre. “The parking needs to be looked into,” points out Krishan.

Shruti Tantia, 20, loves hanging out at the mall but wishes there was “an open adda zone”.

t2 rating: 7/10

CITY CENTRE

Date of birth: June 5, 2004.

Address: DC Block, Sector 1, Salt Lake.

Promoted by: Harsh Neotia.

Immediate impact: Salt Lake was anything but a chill-out zone. Spread over six acres, City Centre changed all that — and how!

Walkthrough: The mall spread over 400,000 sq ft (built-up area) has seven blocks for retail and commercial outlets, each interconnected by bridges. There are 14 entry and exit points. An open space christened the Kund is the adda — and amour — zone for the young. The look is complete with a fountain and a 19th century horse-drawn tramcar that recreates the old-world charm of Calcutta. A recent addition is a gigantic screen in the Kund area. The Royal Bengal Room is a multi-purpose hall for exhibitions, product launches, private parties, marriages and musical performances. Spring Terrace is an open banquet space above Hangout (food court).

Parking: For more than 800 cars. Timings: 10.30am to 8.30pm (stretches till 9pm on weekends).

Footfalls: 15,000 to 20,000 on a weekday, 35,000 to 40,000 on a weekend or holiday.

Big brands: Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Wills Lifestyle, United Colours Of Benetton, Pepe, Levi’s, Shoppers Stop, B.C. Sen Jewellers, Woodlands, Biba, Sony, LG, Bose, Jockey, Lilliput, Hidesign.

Food stops: KFC, Pizza Hut, Haka, Kobe, Hushh, Orko’s Restaurant and Lounge Bar, Café Coffee Day, Caught N Bowled, Kaafila, Clix, A Dash Of This A Dash Of That. The latest addition is Afraa. Afraa Deli, the food court Hangout, Aqua Java counter, a makeshift Hogdog and Pretzel corner, McCain, Tea Junction and Kookie Jar offer quick bites. Plus, ice cream from Baskin Robbins, Rollick, Kwality Walls, Mama Mia and Amul.

Screens: Spread across 60,000 sq ft (approx), INOX has four screens, with a seating capacity of 1,144.

Bonus points: The sense of space thanks to the multiple-building format; a host of events like Winterval, Valentine’s Day celebrations and the City Centre birthday bash; the only mall with a full medical set-up (Apollo Clinic).

Negative marking: The help-desk attendant is available only from 3pm to 8.30pm; too few signages for such a large mall; poor parking and traffic management during weekends; no mega brands like Guess, Marks & Spencer; the loos are often not clean.

Mallspeak: “The open format, rather than a closed or box format, is a huge advantage. We cater to all classes. Something like a Tea Junction serving samosa caters to the Calcutta sentiment. In terms of competition, anything new has its novelty factor. We have a captive crowd from Salt Lake and also a section of crowd that drops in from the south,” says Vijay Dwivedi, general manager, City Centre.

Retailspeak: “Our City Centre store is at a prime spot in the mall. While Forum caters to the mature age bracket, kurtis at South City Mall do well, while at Mani Square and City Centre it is a mixed bag, probably because they are weekend destinations for the whole family. Today you need to make your presence felt at all locations,” feels Sharad Nawalgaria, managing director of FI, a brand that finds a place at all the four malls.

Munchspeak: “The biggest advantage of being at such a mall are the infrastructural security, footfalls and the parking. Chinese as a cuisine is a competition at the mall, but Italian has picked up,” says Pinky Dalmia, director of Hushh and Kobe.

Peoplespeak: Tizza Saria, 27, lives in Kathmandu but whenever she is in town, she never misses a trip to her favourite mall, City Centre. “The ambience is nice. The area is big. Other malls seem to end as soon as you enter. Plus, every time I am here, I get my hands hennaed!” The mother of one has a suggestion for the mall managers: “A play zone where the children can be safe while the mothers go shopping.”

Neha Gupta, 23, and Megha Gupta, 20, love coming to City Centre. “It is a great place to hangout.” Their peeve point? “The attention from guys,” they chorus.

t2 rating: 8/10

SOUTH CITY MALL

Date of birth: January 16, 2008.

Address: 375 Prince Anwar Shah Road.

Immediate impact: The first mall in town designed by an overseas architecture firm (Bentel Associates of South Africa) raised the look-and-feel bar quite significantly. It also turned Anwar Shah Road into a chaos corridor.

Promoted by: The project by South City Projects (Kolkata) Ltd is promoted by R.S. Agarwal and R.S. Goenka of the Emami Group, Sushil Mohta of the Merlin Group, J.K. Khetawat of the Rameswara Group, Pradeep Sureka of the Sureka Group, S.K. Todi of the Shrachi Group and R.K. Bachhawat of the J.B. Group.

Walkthrough: The mall sprawls over 1 million square feet (including parking).The electronically operated glass portals open into an expansive atrium with a giant screen for entertainment. On the lower ground level, Spencer’s Hyper occupies 72,000 sq ft along with a few jewellery outlets and electronics stores. The ground level has two multi-brand anchors, Pantaloons and Shoppers Stop, and the first and second levels are fashion, shoes and travel zones. The six-screen multiplex is on the second floor. The third floor is the food court, restaurants and Timezone coupled with some aspirational outlets like the Sonodyne Listening Room, Bodyline Sports and Osim.

Parking: A nine-level parking block that can accommodate 1,300 four-wheelers and 500 two-wheelers.

Timings: 11am to 9pm.

Footfalls: “The highest in the country in any mall,” claim the mall managers, reluctant to quantify it.

Big brands: The city’s first Lladro, Samsaara, Catwalk shoes, Roncato, Kittens, Rocia and Chemistry. Plus more of Wills Lifestyle, Starmark, Marks & Spencer, Swarovski, UCB, Woodland, Levis, ColorPlus, The Body Shop...

Foodstops: Almost the entire third floor has been dedicated to fun food. The 30,000 sq ft food court, run by Blue Foods of Mumbai, has on its menu Gelato, Not Just Dosa, Sizzlers, Mexican, Hotwich, Chaat Bazaar, State of Punjab & Bengal and more. Things get more serious with the Thai restaurant Benjarong and Zara, The Tapas Bar & Restaurant — both new to the city — and a second Mainland China and Flame ’N’ Grill.

Screens: The six-screen Fame multiplex has changed the way we watch movies with one Gold Class screen that boasts 180-degree reclining sofas, cushions and blankets.

Bonus points: The best-looking mall in town; nine-level parking block that allows shoppers to drive up to the floor of their choice; nine bathrooms (almost always clean) with baby stations about to be added; free filtered drinking water.

Negative marking: Snacks running out during night shows at Fame; for such a spacious mall there are not enough seats beyond the food court.

Mallspeak: “Malls must have competition because malls as a whole have to draw people. No mall should fail. Indians are born with the ‘buyer beware’ genetic disorder, which means they talk to 10 different people before buying anything,” feels Sanjeev Mehra, the vice-president of mall operations at South City Mall.

Retailspeak: “South City makes the best business sense; we have smaller billings but larger volumes as opposed to Forum. What South City has to its advantage is good crowd-pullers like the food court, Spencer’s and the Fame multiplex which help in the sustainability of the mall,” says Shiv Daswani, partner of Little Shop, which also has outlets at Mani Square and Forum.

Munchspeak: “Each mall will eat into the other’s business. The structure, brand names and location of South City Mall have clicked, and Forum is feeling the hit. But City Centre is going great guns, as we can see from Haka. At Mani Square we will be opening three counters at the food court, three restaurants (Haka, Machaan and Flame ’N’ Grill) and the nightclub Shack,” says Debashish Ghosh, regional business manager of Speciality Restaurants, which also has a Mainland China and Flame ’N’ Grill at South City Mall.

Peoplespeak: “You can find everything under one roof here. Add to that the international look of the mall and the fact that I live in one of the South City towers,” smiles Rahul Jha, 24, a businessman.

“This mall scores with its designer wear like Ritu Kumar and Komal Sood. It has the space to hold many people unlike other malls that are so crowded on weekends and one is just pushed around,” says model Pooja.

t2 rating: 9/10

MANI SQUARE MALL

Date of birth: June 15, 2008.

Address: 164/1 Maniktala Main Road, on EM Bypass Road (next to Apollo Gleneagles).

Promoted by: Sanjay Jhunjhunwala, CEO, Mani Group.

Immediate impact: A hangout for north Calcutta residents.

Walkthrough: The 710,000 sq-ft mall is a shop-eat-entertainment space with banquets. There are two blocks — the five-level car park and the shopping mall. In the mall block, there are two floors of basement parking and three levels of retail. The food court, dining and multiplex are on the third and fourth floors. Hidden from shopper view are three banquets halls (one open-air) on the fifth floor and a business centre. Floors six to eight are the IT office space and on the ninth floor is the Mani Group office. The handiwork of Design International, Toronto, the mall wears a contemporary look.

Parking: Car parking for 1,200 four-wheelers and 500 two-wheelers, 10 bus-stops for iMax school programmes.

Timings: 11am to 11pm.

Footfalls: A cumulative count of around 70,000 from Monday to Friday and 30,000-35,000 on Saturdays and Sundays.

Big brands: The focus is on “popular rather than luxury brands” to bring in “more shoppers than window shoppers”. So pride of place goes to Levi’s, Benetton, Zodiac, Eye Catchers the salon, eZone, Spencer’s Hyper, Little Shop... There are a few firsts like Stanza, AND (Anita Dongre’s pret line), leather brand Blues & Blues, watch brand Tissot, USI, bed-bath-linen finishing store Otobi, and Titan Eye-Plus.

Foodstops: The anchor store on the ground floor is McDonald’s, doing brisk business. The city’s food firsts at Mani Square will be Costa, Rajdhani Thali and Mainland China’s foray into the food court with three counters — Calcutta Roll Company, Chow King (Chinese) and Mostly Kebab — as well as Machaan, their first theme restaurant, and Shack, their nightclub. Mozzarella, the Singaporean restaurant debuts in India on August 14.

If the first floor has Costa, the floors above have Cookie Man, Biscotti, Aqua Java and more. Plus, ice cream from New Zealand Naturals and also Cookie Man.

Screens: Cinemax is the multiplex with three screens and will open shortly. iMax has a 80 x 120 feet flat screen with 3D effect and occupies 25,000 sq-ft of the mall.

Negative marking: Parking lots are spacious but connectivity is poor; the Mani Square residential block, some distance away from the mall, often misleads first-timers; entry is a mess because of the appalling condition of the Apollo Gleneagles slip road.

Bonus points: McDonald’s is back in town after the Park Street fiasco; iMax, the next big thing in movie-watching, will be here by mid-August; the mall is bang on the road most-travelled (the Bypass). Add-on: Rs 5 crore is being pumped in to build two footbridges across the Bypass for easy access to the mall.

Mallspeak: “We are waiting for the three crowd-pullers to open — the food court, multiplex and Spencer’s. Any retail development depends on the catchment area. We have positioned ourselves as the mall of north Calcutta,” says Subesh Ray of Mani Group.

Retailspeak: “Our South City store Reebok is doing better today but Mani Square has great potential in terms of attraction. It has branded food stops and iMax. The high-street draws single footfalls while malls bring in groups,” says Vaibhav Dugar, franchisee of Levi’s, Docker’s and Reebok.

Munchspeak: “Our brand is a highly impulsive brand which is why it is very important for us to have space in a mall with high footfalls,” says Sandeep Sewal of Australian Foods India Pvt Ltd, the Cookie Man parent company. “South City has the highest over-the-counter retail sales, better than any of our 42 outlets in India and our ‘average per ticket’ is pretty high. Mani Square is not 100 per cent operational but we are already drawing 65-70 per cent of what we draw at South City Mall.”

Peoplespeak: “I like South City the best, followed by Mani Square, City Centre and then Forum. South City scores with its brands, Mani Square is more focused on eating and entertainment,” feels Niharika Agarwal, 18.

“I live in Salt Lake and usually go to City Centre but Mani Square is a refreshing change,” says Tania Chakraborti, 27.

t2 rating: 8.5/10