BMP sells parking space to mall

Bangalore shines on the malls landscape
The Times of India

Bangalore: Bangalore’s mall scene is set to brighten further, and The Forum mall is about to see some real competition. The massive Garuda mall on Magrath Road will be inaugurated on April 11, and will be open to the public from the end of the month. The Sigma mall on Cunningham Road is expected to be launched in the first week of June.

Both will have multiplexes as a key attraction. Garuda will have a 1,350-seat, 5-screen multiplex of Inox, a major domestic cineplex player. Sigma will have a 1,200-seat, 4-screen multiplex operated by Fun Republic, a Zee Group company.

In terms of scale, Garuda at 7.1 lakh sq ft is comparable with The Forum at 6.5 lakh sq ft. Garuda includes 1 lakh sq ft of hotel space. “It will be a five-star business hotel and we are talking to major hotel players to manage it,” says B.G. Uday, managing director of Maverick Holdings & Investments, which is setting up the facility together with the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC), the original owner of the land on which the property has come up.

Garuda’s 11-storey multilevel parking and two levels of basement parking will be able to accommodate 1,000 cars. Shoppers’ Stop and Westside will be the anchor tenants in the mall, the former taking about 50,000 sq ft of space and the latter about 32,000 sq ft. The mall will also mark the entry of Marks & Spencer into Bangalore.

Sigma has a total built-up space of 2.4 lakh sq ft, with 1.2 lakh sq ft of retail space and car park area that can accommodate 320 cars. V.P. Desu, marketing head of the Sigma Group, says Pantaloon and Food Bazaar will be the anchor tenants.