Sandeep Runwal, managing director of Runwal Group, which operates R Mall in Mumbai, blames high property prices and rising construction costs for the steep rentals.
Another gripe retailers have is that most mall developers only focus on big projects.

They often don't get the concept of retail right or work on the right designs or product mix.

"For example, Shoppers Stop with HyperCity is a good combo but it won't work to have a Big Bazaar at the same place because that caters to a lower segment of consumers," a retailer, who did not wish to be named, points out.

Too many of them leads to implosion.

Amber Maheshwari, director of Mumbai-based real estate consultant DTZ, said one successful mall brings 6-7 more to its area. "This is a disaster in itself. Then, there aren't enough retailers to fill the malls, especially with the high rentals around."

Standing out in the crowd becomes critical, thus.

To do that, developers have to make their malls unique and find a good anchor retailer, says Nimish Shah, vice president of retail at Spencer's, the supermarket chain owned by the RPG group. "Right now, we are witnessing an oversupply of vanilla malls," he says.

Developers, however, remain unfazed.

Runwal agrees many malls will shut down unless they get their business model right, but asserts that the potential for such properties remains huge.

"This is just the beginning. We are all learning from our mistakes, improvising and innovating. It is a high-risk business but everyone still wants a piece of it," he said.
Sanjay Prabhu, general manager of Inorbit Mall in Mumbai, concurs getting the business model right is an imperative.

"Many developers are already facing difficulties getting retailers on board. They have all jumped in to make hay but are not really focusing on what the retailer wants," Prabhu said.

So what happens to those superfluous malls when the Doomsday prediction comes true?

The refrain among retailers is "we don't know".

Will they recover their investments? No one's sure.

Some failed projects may metamorphose into commercial spaces, but that's easier said than done.

Retailers also have turned cautious. Those who were on a major expansion spree to gain large footprints have slowed down. They are picking their locations and malls with care, waiting to watch how the market evolves.

Developers would find it tough to sell space and operate malls for more than a year unless they bring in retail consultants, designers and managers to build the right business model, say experts.