Elan Epic

With most commercial projects you are buying a rendering and a completion date, and Elan Epic is a refreshing change from that. It is a delivered, fully operational high-street mall on SPR Road in Sector 70, with its Occupation Certificate received and retail, food and a five-screen multiplex already trading. It is registered under RERA with registration number GGM/298/2018/30, and you can check it on the state RERA portal before booking.

That changes the questions you ask. You are not betting on construction but buying into a running asset with close to 400 units, so it comes down to footfall, tenant mix and rent.

The mall sits on a 3.35-acre corner plot open on two sides, directly fronting SPR Road, and that road visibility is a real asset for retail. Around it is the Sector 70 residential belt, a dense, already-built catchment, so the footfall base exists today rather than depending on what gets built next door. NH-8 is about 6 minutes away, Golf Course Extension Road and Sohna Road are close by, and the Dwarka Expressway is linked. Cybercity and MG Road are about 30 minutes, and IGI Airport is about 40 minutes.

The five-screen multiplex by NY Cinema is already running. The grand atrium holds one of the largest water bodies in a Gurgaon commercial project, with glass capsule lifts rising from the water and hanging, glass-fronted F&B pods over it. There are also 18 high-speed escalators, and they are there for a reason, because they help pull shoppers past the ground floor and up through the building.

Beyond the atrium and multiplex, there is fine dining and a food court. Behind the scenes you have 24x7 security with CCTV, 24x7 power backup, fire-fighting and emergency systems, professional facility maintenance and two levels of basement parking. Road-facing shops are double-height with glass shop-fronts, common areas and the atrium have vitrified or stone flooring and centralised air-conditioning, and fire detection, sprinklers and hydrants run across every floor. The food court and multiplex floors have dedicated services.

Retail shops range from 450 to 750 sq.ft, starting from around ₹1.4 Cr. F&B and restaurant units are 750 to 1,500 sq.ft, and anchor or multiplex-linked retail is 1,500 to 2,000 sq.ft, both with price on request. Price depends on the floor, the frontage and whether the unit is already leased, and it moves, so check current figures. You can buy outright with full payment on agreement and take immediate possession or rent it out, and some vacant units may also be available on lease.

Known footfall and an existing tenant mix take a lot of guesswork out of commercial buying, and rent can start from day one. For an NRI, that is the appeal: an income asset you can assess on facts and hold without managing a build from abroad.

The careful step is to look at the specific unit, not the mall. Ask for the tenant's name, the lease tenure, the lock-in and the current rent, and work out the yield on today's price. Since this is a resale and leasing market, confirm occupancy across the floor too.

Elan is a Gurugram developer that built its name on retail and commercial projects, and only later moved into big-ticket housing such as Elan The Presidential and Elan The Emperor in Sector 106. Commercial space is its home ground, which is worth knowing when you are judging a retail scheme from it.