GURGAON: DLF is getting ready to offer an iteration of CyberHub, the most prominent F&B and entertainment destination in the National Capital Region, in another part of Gurgaon – on the tony Golf Course Road. The up and coming low-rise area dedicated to gastronomy is located at Horizon Centre Complex, bang opposite luxury apartment complexes such as Aralias and Magnolias — home to CEOs and CXOs — and in the vicinity of DLF Phase 5 high-rises.
The complex consists of two towers – One Horizon Center and Two Horizon Center. The new dining destination called Horizon Plaza will house both affordable and premium restaurants and is likely to become operational by mid-February. Although Horizon Plaza is smaller than the three-level CyberHub, its USP will be exclusivity.
Tenants at this venue, with the exception of popular chains such as Starbucks, cannot open other outlets in Gurgaon for the next three to nine years. Horizon Plaza has a dual earnings model – partly through rentals, which are 15-20% higher than in CyberHub, and partly through revenue-sharing.
Concept restaurants such as celebrity chef Marut Sikka’s Delhi Club House, Whisky Samba and Italian restaurant Caffe Tonino have already opened doors. Horizon Plaza will have about 1 lakh square feet of retailing space housing 18 restaurants in addition to shops such as an Apple store, Looks saloon, J-Mart convenience store and ethnic outlet Nappa Dori.
CyberHub, which opened in October 2013, is now spread over almost 4 lakh square feet catering to 50 food brands. With no major food and beverage destination in and around the complex, DLF expects to replicate the success of CyberHub, where rental increases have been the steepest across the country over the past two years when other upmarket retail locations have either been stagnant or declining.
More than 20,000 people work in the two Horizon Towers, providing an all-day, captive market, unlike malls, where walk-ins are higher mainly on weekends, holidays and in the evenings.
“Catchment for these restaurants is people who work in and around Horizon Centre and those living in premium residential apartments of DLF Phase 5,” said Pushpa Bector, head of the premium malls division at DLF Utilities.
The Horizon Centre complex is host to Fortune 500 companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and American Express. The top-end office complex is a joint venture between DLF and Hines, a Houstonbased privately owned global real estate investment, development and management firm. Mobile handset maker Samsung Electronics, online restaurant listing site Zomato, cab aggregator Uber and Vistara, the Tata-Singapore Airlines joint venture, also have offices in the complex.
DLF’s luxury mall Emporio is coming up nearby and will add to footfall in Horizon Plaza on the weekends and holidays. Most of the restaurants are closed in the evenings and will turn into all-day diners once the centre becomes fully operational. Delhi Club House, which offers north Indian, continental and Asian cuisine, is open from 11 am to 4:30 pm. It’s the place to go if you yearn for delicacies served in popular clubs across the country such as Bombay toastie of the Presidency Club and chicken stroganoff of the Delhi Golf Club.
“The intent is to bring the culture of eating and socialising back,” said Sikka. “Now, eating out is all about going to fancy restaurants, with fancy menus and fancy plating and taking pictures and putting it up on social media.”
Starbucks, bakery L’Opera and south Indian outlet Sree Rathnam have outlets in the new centre. Hahn’s Kitchen, which offers Korean cuisine, is among those catering to expatriates who work for multinational companies with offices nearby.
