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Noida: Noida’s The Great India Place, once known as the biggest mall of India, is reportedly now on sale. As per reports in various media houses, the promoters of the Entertainment City Limited, who operated the GIP mall, are keen on selling it and a deal has been finalised at Rs 2000 crore. The GIP Mall, which was built in the year 2007, is under debt of Rs. 800 crores and it has been speculated that the money would be used to settle the debt. Reportedly, the entire developed area of 147 acres that is comprised of The Great India Place, Gardens Galleria Mall, Worlds of wonder, Amusement Park and Kidzania will be sold. This vacant space can be used to build commercial or residential buildings. There is currently about 1.7 million sq. ft. area available for development.
The Great India Place was developed by Appu Ghar Group and The Unitech Group. It is maintained by Entertainment City Limited. It is located in Sector 38-A, adjacent to Noida Sector 18 Metro Station.
Here are some reason why the GIP mall has failed to meet the expectation of people and are running in huge debt?
It was believed that after the launch of DLF-Mall of India, business and popularity would affect the GIP mall and it happened exactly this way. Major showrooms shifted to DLF mall that caused a huge blow to the GIP Mall. This was a great deal for GIP as major brands and entertainment sources shifted to the other side.
The shopping mall culture marked its entry in India during the 1990s. The first mall of India was ‘Ansal Plaza’ which opened on 1 November 1999. By the end of 2002, Delhi’s Ansal Plaza, Chennai’s Spencer Plaza, Mumbai’s Crossroads were the only three malls in India. The development of shopping malls enabled the coexistence of various locations for shopping, movies, and playing games. However, in 2008, the mall culture slowed down due to recession but soon bounced back. By 2011, every city had a mall and metro cities became the destination of the retail-real estate synergy.
When e-commerce platform arrived during 2014-15, it posed a tough competition to the shopping malls as people started preferring shopping online and focusing on easy purchase rather than going to a mall and then buying it. Gradually it became a habit as many found it more convenient. Moreover, the stores in malls have to pay huge rent and they fail to compete with the online platforms as far as discounts are concerned.
The covid pandemic lockdown was tough for everyone. It forced the many shutters down for months. According to reports, during March 2019 to April 2020, the malls in India witnessed a loss of Rs 3000 crore and leaving more than 1 lakh people unemployed. It was predicted that the majority of malls would close in the near future, and this has already occurred. The number of dead malls, the mall with a higher vacancy rate and low consumer traffic level, is increasing day by day.
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