Nitesh Estates in retail foray

Nitesh Estates, the real estate arm of the Bangalore-based Nitesh Group, on Sunday marked its foray into the booming retail space with the announcement of setting up a 1 million sq ft shopping mall in the heart of Bangalore City on a 5-acre land.

The shopping mall, which will be the largest in South India, will come up at an investment of Rs 400 crore and will be ready towards the end of 2009.

Nitesh Estates has already locked up property for rolling out similar retails initiatives in Chennai, Thiruvanathapuram and Kochi in the next six months.

Apart from these, Nitesh Estates will also be setting up super premium retail avenues in the luxury five star hotels it is building in Bangalore and Chennai.

Speaking on the foray a spokesperson for Nitesh Estates, said, "This foray is a key part of Nitesh Estates' larger objective to become a national real estate player. This is also an important move for us as this enhances our basket of offerings."

The first premium shopping mall, which is being designed by a Seattle-based architecture firm, will be coming up on Bangalore's prestigious Indira Nagar 100 feet road and will be in close proximity to landmarks like The Leela Palace Kempinski Hotel and host of standalone premium retail outlets.

The shopping mall will host some of the most luxurious brands of the world and is destined to become the shopping and entertainment hub of the garden city. A portion of the space will also house serviced apartments.

Nitesh Group is an integrated property development company headquartered in Bangalore with Nitesh Estates engaged in the development of residential Apartments, office buildings, hotels, gated townships and retail space.

Nitesh Estates is developing a Rs 100 crore built-to-suit residential complex for ITC Limited and is partnering with New York based Citigroup Property Investors for building India's First Ritz Carlton hotel in Bangalore at a cost of $100 million.

Earlier this year New York-based Och-Ziff Capital Management Group hedge fund had picked up a stake in Nitesh Estates for $55 million.