More transparency required

30 May 2009

The session entitled ‘Developer Retailer Collaboration: Learning from GCC’ in ISCF'09 took up the issue of the synergy between the two entities from an international perspective. True that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been doing great business as far as the shopping centres are concerned. Tourists from all over the world flock to Dubai, Singapore and the likes with the sole purpose of shopping. At the end of the session a short film was screened in order to highlight the attractions like ice hockey rink, musical fountains and the likes, of the world renowned Dubai shopping centres.

From his years of experience, Suresh Bhatia, CEO, Emaar Retail, UAE claimed, “A mall is designed and made on the drawing board. It can also be ruined on the same. So the developers should be able to visualise the concept perfectly.”

Phil McArthur, Sr. VP, Ivanhoe Cambridge Investment Advisory (India) who moderated the session, shared, “It should be a complete plan activity and there should be sufficient database of research material that will enable to put together the right retail mix. So the plan goes beyond the architectural issues in order to incorporate the operational and management aspects of a shopping centre as well.”

One of the eminent speakers of this expert panel, Utpal A. Patel, Director of Architecture, Broadway Malyan, UAE, put forward his view. He said, “We work with developers and large anchors. It is the team work of professionals that help a shopping centre to succeed."

As a whole, the session focused on innovative models of working together in the current scenario with trend prediction, consumption and retail in mind. From an insightful look into GCC countries shopping centre, the fastest growing shopping centre industry in the world today, it was concluded that there is a need for more transparency between the Indian mall developers and the retailers.

– Sayanti Banerjee, Mumbai Bureau