The city’s IT growth story has led to a retail boom in the city. This has resulted in growth moving to the Secondary Business Districts. Since the Central Business District (CBD) does not have much scope for growth and further expansions, the spill-over is now in high street shopping areas such as Indiranagar, Koramangala, New BEL Road and Jayanagar which were predominantly residential localities. The broadest roads in these residential localities with good access to other parts of the city have been transformed, changing the dynamics here forever.
Huge houses with even larger garden spaces sitting pretty on 50×100 sqft plots are now a rarity here. Mixed development and innovative designs have ensured that these homes have geared up for the changing economic scenario.
When the retail giants started scouting for space to operate, they either demolished or remodeled these existing homes. The property owners then approached architects to customise their property to suit the tenant by either moving out or living on another floor on the same premises. “When we convert a residential complex, the main criterion is the site dimension and structural integrity of the building,” says architect Krishna Kumar N, who has executed many such projects. “We identify the partitions and load-bearing walls and strengthen the building depending on these factors. Whether it is a salon, coffee shop, hospital or retail outlet, depending on the requirement, we either retain the heritage look of the home or completely transform it into a fashionable and sleek space,” adds Krishna.
Retail accounts for 22 percent of the country’s GDP and eight percent of the total employment. The share of organised retail segment, which accounted for just one percent of the total retail market, has gone up to 5-6 percent now and is expected to increase to 15-16 percent by 2020.
The high street shopping in the city has resulted in property prices touching astounding highs in these segments. While the debate on whether to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail or not is on, the move will see hypermarkets make inroads into the sector.
“Hypermarkets have a business model based on thin margins and high volumes. This is how they keep their prices at low levels. They also bring their own logistics, warehousing and overall back-end support capabilities with them and are powered by a deeply-researched understanding of footfall dynamics,” explains Pankaj Renjhen, Managing Director – Retail Services, Jones Lang LaSalle India. “Unlike malls, they are not dependent on multiplexes, food courts and anchors to drive footfalls to their establishments. They generate their own footfalls by the sheer power of bargains,” he adds.
The size of India’s retail market is estimated at 450 billion dollars. Of all the segments in retail, the contribution of food and grocery remains the highest at around 55 percent of the total retail pie. Clothing is pegged at 10 percent while other segments include entertainment, books, sports, furniture and furnishing.
Scope for mixed development:
With the retail boom here to stay, many residential property owners are now looking at means to increase their rentals and cash in on their prime locations. “We have been fashioning out retail spaces from homes and this trend may be here to stay,” says architect Naveen Prabhakar. “When it comes to lifestyle stores, we usually like to maintain the interiors and cosy corners of the home to give a different shopping experience. But if we are designing a space for a cell phone company, we will have to clear out the inner space of the home to give the showroom an open feel,” says Naveen.
Architect Santosh Belani who has also designed many such properties feels that there is huge scope for such development considering the space constraints in the city. “It works well for shoppers as they need not go into specific areas for their shopping,” he says.
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