South City Mall just turned 15 this year! One of the city’s favourite hangout spots and shopping destinations, this mall has gone through quite a glow-up in the last few years, and houses exclusive brands in both shopping and F&B.
My Kolkata chatted with Man Mohan Bagree, vice-president, South City Projects (Kolkata) Ltd to know 15 fun facts about the mall to celebrate its 15th birthday.
1. South City Mall opened on January 16, 2008
2. The mall is located at 375, Prince Anwar Shah Road, Kolkata 700068
3. The south Kolkata hangout favourite is operational from 10am to 10pm for shops, 9am to 2am for theatres and 11am to midnight for restaurants. The food court is functional from 10am until midnight, while the lounge and pubs on Level 4 are open from 11am till 2am on the weekends.
4. South City Mall opened with 70 per cent occupancy on day one with brands like Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons, Spencers, Marks and Spencers, Next, Swarovski, Little Shop and Himalaya, to name a few.
5. The mall was shut for about a year for renovations from February 2017. It reopened in full capacity in January 2018.
6. There’s a lot more at South City besides shopping. One of the most interesting attractions at the mall is the 65,000-square-foot food court with international and national F&B brands such as KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Taco Bell, Subway, Wow Momo, Wow China, Hakka, Kaazi, Kailash Parbat, Mmaroosh, Vaango, The Fish Co., Pind Balluchi, Amritsari Express, Costa Coffee, Cafe Coffee Day and Baskin Robbins, to name a few.
There are also four fine dining restaurants, three quick service restaurants and four lounges. The six screens at INOX include an exclusive IMAX along with the largest Timezone for kids with a bowling alley for teenagers and youngsters. The newly opened exclusive Mirror Maze at Hamleys is also a favourite.
7. Among the most popular eateries at the mall are Mainland China, Chili's, Veneto, KFC, McDonalds, Vaango and the newly opened Scrapyard.
8. There are approximately 134 brands spread across the four-storied mall.
9. Shoppers have a bunch of choices with many exclusive stores that have been brought to eastern India like ZARA, Sephora, American Eagle, Simon Carter, Selected, Own Days and Lladro among others. All of them are very popular and are feathers in our cap.
10. Some of the newest additions at South City Mall are the exclusive ADIDAS Originals store and The Collective, along with a new GUESS store. Regulars might also have noticed that Manyawar-Mohey relaunched their flagship store in the mall recently as well.
11. Some of the malls' exclusive brands that are not there anywhere else in Kolkata are ZARA, Sephora, Adidas Originals, Lladro, Selected Home, Simon Carter, Colombia and Chumbak
12. Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kartik Aaryan, Sonu Nigam, and cricketers like Sourav Ganguly, Shoiab Akhtar and even Yuvraj Singh have visited South City. Recently, Usha Uthup launched her new album at the mall.
13. South City Mall has been experiencing a 2.5 lakh-plus footfall on a single day around four to six times a year, especially on days like Christmas and during Durga Puja season. Normally, the footfall is about 1.5 lakh a day on weekends, during the festive season or holidays round the year.
14. Weekends are the busiest. Months when there are end of season sales, the pre-Puja shopping month, and December are the busiest months.
15. South City Mall has now completed five years since the re-launch and a lot of upgrades are planned. There will be parking space added for about 200 more cars in the format of puzzle parking this quarter, and a few new brands will be coming to the space for aspirational customers. The micro brewery will be operational by the beginning of the financial year too!
