Mantri Developers line up Rs 1,000 cr for new malls

Mantri Developers, after operating in the residential and commercial IT office space market in Bangalore, is now aggressively planning a retail real estate push with Rs 1,000 investment in shopping malls.

The company is finalising two mall projects in Bangalore at an investment of Rs 600 crore and another project in Hyderabad at Rs 200 crore.

The shopping malls in Bangalore are to come up on Malleswaram's Sampige Road (premises of old Raja Mills) and Sarjapur Road. The Hyderabad project is to be located close to its IT hub.

The 800,000 square feet shopping mall on Sampige Road is to be built for Rs 200 crore and will house multiplex, hypermaket, large department stores and a few branded retail stores, said Sushil Mantri, managing director, Mantri Developers.

The Sarjapur road project will be spread over 1.8 million square feet, and cost Rs 200 crore budget, he added.

Of the total Rs 600 crore turnover during the fiscal 2005-06, 80 per cent revenue has come from residential projects and the balance 20 per cent through IT commercial space.

According to Sushil Mantri, the company has set an ambitious target of Rs 1,000 crore turnover for FY 2006-07 and in three years a revenue break-up of 65 per cent residential, 20 per cent IT office space and the balance 15 per cent from the retail sector.

Mantri Developers shot to fame when Morgan Stanley's real estate investment arm invested about $68 million in it. The firm has so far completed over 80 projects, approximately covering 8 million square feet of builtup area.

Altius has been its most prestigeous project In Bangalore, with each apartment retailing at approximately Rs 6 crore.