Express Avenue ( Tamil: எக்ஸ்ப்ரெஸ் அவென்யூ) is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

promoted by Express Infrastructure, A division of Express Newspapers Pvt. Ltd. It is home to the largest gaming arcade in

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and T ...

. Built at a cost of , the mall is spread over , including of leasable (retail) area. The mall has 10 anchor tenants and 150 vanilla tenants.

Description

The mall is situated near the

Royapettah Clock Tower Royapettah Clock Tower is a standalone clock tower in the neighbourhood of Royapettah in Chennai, India. It is one of the four standalone clock towers in the city, the other three being the ones at Mint, Doveton and Pulianthope. History Befor ...

. The mall is built on an 8-acre site inside the historic Indian Express Estate and has four floors of retail space, a building for corporate offices and a hotel. Out of 10 acres, about 3.57 acres have been taken up by buildings. The rest have been used for car parking, drive-ways and landscaping. In all, the mall has 26 lifts, 34 escalators and 4 travelators. Express Avenue hosts a mixture of shopping, business and leisure. The mall is bounded by Whites Road, Woods Road and Patullos Road and has a three-level basement parking space for over 1,500 cars and a parking area for bikes. It has a total development of including 900,000 sq ft of retail space, 100,000 sq. ft of hotel, 200,000 sq. ft of office space, 400,000 sq ft of parking space. The mall was inaugurated on 26 May 2010. E Hotel, a 44-room four-star boutique hotel, was built in the mall at a cost of 300 million.

Entertainment and leisure

The entertainment portion of the mall is . The Escape Cinemas, the branch of PVR Cinemas, consists of an 08-screens multiplex with a capacity of 1,600 seats covering , which is the city's largest cineplex. California-based Giovanni Castor played a key role in the overall design of Escape. The mall is home to the largest gaming arcade in South India. Besides stand-alone stores like

Bath & Body Works Bath & Body Works, LLC. is an American retail store chain that sells soaps, lotions, fragrances, and candles. It was founded in 1990 in New Albany, Ohio and has since expanded across 6 continents. In 1997, it was the largest bath shop chain in ...

, Montblac, and

Armani Exchange Giorgio Armani S.p.A. (), commonly known as Armani, is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in Milan by Giorgio Armani which designs, manufactures, distributes and retails haute couture, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, accessories, and ...

the mall has an Lifestyle and a 65,000 sq. ft Pantaloon, Smart Bazaar, H&M and

Forever 21 Forever 21 is a multinational fast fashion retailer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. Originally founded as the store Fashion 21 in Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1984,Forever 21History & Facts, n.d. Retrieved 27 April 2014 ...

. The anchor tenants are expected to take 300,000 to 400,000 sq ft, while the vanilla tenants would occupy up to 400,000 sq. ft. The food court has 25 counters and includes food chains such as

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based restaurant c ...

Taco Bell Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, incl ...

, KFC and

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at d ...

. The mall has six atria with a height not less than 75 ft each. The atrium areas are covered with tensile fabric and the centre of the atrium is covered with glass.

Food court

The court, also called EA Garden, has 25 counters with several food and beverage options including Oriental,

North Indian North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Centra ...

South Indian South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

, American and Italian.

Fun City

Fun City, a prominent attraction of the mall, is a play area for children.

Business chamber

The business chamber is the first such marketing space to be built inside a mall in India. The area of this zone is over of office space at prices intended to compete with

special economic zones A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

and IT parks elsewhere in the city.

Parking

The three-level basement parking is equipped to handle about 2,000 vehicles. Express Avenue Night View

Gallery

File:Express Avenue, Chennai 1.JPG, Express Avenue Chennai File:Ignited hoarding at night.jpg, Ignited hoarding at night File:Express Avenue.JPG, Interiors of Express Avenue File:Lotus-Renault F1 car in display during an event.jpg, Lotus-Renault F1 car on display during an event File:Children With Express Assistant..jpg, EA Bot - India's first customer assistant robot deployed in Express Avenue Chennai, Tamil Nadu File:EA Christmas Carnival.png, Christmas Carnival 2020

References

{{Chennai Topics Shopping malls in Chennai Shopping malls established in 2010 2010 establishments in Tamil Nadu