Mumbai Airport Upgrade to Open up Mega Retail Space

May 29, 2008	(Be the first to rate this story!)  Loading ...
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The Mumbai airport’s upgradation will open up a humungous 5.7 crore sq ft or about 132 acres of real estate (almost seven Oval maidans), exclusively for non-aeronautical purposes like retail, commercial and hospitality. The area is mainly around Sahar village, Kurla and Kalina.

According to a Cushman & Wakefield report on Airport Realty, the modernization and upgradation of 47 airport projects across the country is expected to generate 78 million sq ft (1,790 acres) for commercial purposes by 2015.

In Mumbai, about 28% (1.6 million sq ft) of the 132 acres will be for retail, 50% or about 2.87 million sq ft will be for hospitality and 22% (1.26 million sq ft) will be reserved for office space. About 3,200 hotel rooms will come up in mainly five and four star hotels.

The Cushman & Wakefield report said nearly 50% of the estimated 78 million sq ft of airport realty in India will be concentrated in just three cities of Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi. These three cities alone will receive about 14 million sq ft of office space and about 10,200 hotel rooms. All over the country, roughly 27,525 hotel rooms will be generated from development of airports.

At a time when the global growth rate of the airport sector has been about 9% per annum, India has seen an average annual growth of 35% over a period of six years. Non-aeronautical revenues are expected to increase from 35% to 54% by 2015.

“As airports have the advantage of 24-hour activity with very high people traffic, they are crucial locations for next generation retail and entertainment centers as well as business and hospitality zones,” the report said.

Last year, a Mumbai developer was awarded the project to clear 276 acres of land under slums from around the Santa Cruz airport. A large chunk of this land will be freed for commercial and retail development.

“Real estate zones in closer proximity to the terminals boast of a location advantage and capitalize on it to command a premium. This obviously goes for land rates, too. However, it does not necessarily make these regions the most expensive,” the report observed.

News Published Under:   Real Estate India, Mumbai |

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