Aeren to invest Rs 1,500 cr in north

Delhi-based Aeren R Enterprises, a leading infrastructure development conglomerate doing value-added real estate projects in edutainment, entertainment, specialty malls, corporate trading and financial services, will invest about Rs 1,500 crore in various projects, spread over 2-3 years in the northern region, a majority of them in Punjab.

The firm is planning to launch hotels, service apartments, clubs, automobile malls, office towers, houses for senior citizens, etc., for which land has been acquired.

The company is also setting up a mall called "Festival City" in Ludhiana. The project is spread over 2 million square feet, with an investment of Rs 350 crore.

Based on the "mall within a mall" concept, the destination mall in Ludhiana, situated on a highway, is coming up as an outing centre for shopping, entertainment and leisure. Apart from showrooms of leading brands, the mall will house six-screen multiplexes and an IMAX screen, apart from an ice-skating rink, gaming zone, bowling alley, and a video arcade.

"This will be the first mall-in-a-mall for Ludhiana, with special focus on kids, lifestyle, fashion, hospitality, entertainment and leisure," Sudhir Mathur, COO, Aeren R Enterprises.

Mathur said the inauguration of the mall was to take place by the middle of next year.

"More than 70 per cent of the retail space in Festival City has been leased to renowned brands like Shopper's Stop, Pantaloon, Reebok, Levi Strauss and Adidas. The balance space has been kept for foreign brands expected to enter the Indian retail market this year," Mathur said.

Commenting on new projects, he said: "We will launch two projects every quarter. Apart from Festival City, where construction is going on, our projects include a Corporate Tower in Faridabad, which will be spread over 6.5 acres, meant for ITES (IT-enabled services); a Trade City near Phillaur, which will have a warehouse, a wholesale and retail market (175 acres), a five-star hotel (7 acres) and a Central Business District (17 acres), penthouses and villas on Ferozpur Road (Punjab, 12 acres), etc. We will invest about Rs 1,500 crore in these projects."

Some company executives recently visited the United States. The main purpose of the visit was to interact with NRIs and tell them about the opportunities in India in the real estate sector.