S P Setia’s Setia City Mall set to be largest in Shah Alam

TheEdge Fri, Oct 18, 2019 10:51am - 4 years View Original


SHAH ALAM: Setia City Mall, a joint venture between S P Setia Bhd and Lendlease, is set to be the largest mall here, on completion of the project’s expansion, which will cost over RM500 million, by the first quarter of next year.

S P Setia executive vice-president Datuk Tan Hon Lim said the mall’s expansion is targeted to be open to the public by June next year.

“The expansion of Setia City Mall at this juncture augurs well for S P Setia’s long-term vision for its investment property arm. Being located in the 4,000-acre (1,619ha) flagship township of Setia Group, the mall is poised for steady mall growth as more residents move into this township, which upon completion will be home to possibly 200,000 people,” said Tan at the unveiling of Setia City Mall’s phase 2 expansion plan yesterday.

The expansion will result in the mall’s size increasing by 61.64% or 450,000 sq ft to 1.2 million sq ft — from 730,000 sq ft currently — making it the largest shopping and leisure destination here.

The expansion plan will add another 150 retail outlets to the mall, sprawled across three levels of the mall, to the existing 235 retailers that include key tenants such as Parkson, Urban Fresh and Golden Screen Cinemas.

The expansion will also add another 1,800 parking bays to the current 2,500 bays, bringing the total to 4,300 parking bays upon completion.

“Ten years ago, this township started with 15,000 residents. Now, it has over 200,000 residents. That creates additional demand and changing retail behaviour, which means we have to expand the mall’s offer, such as food and beverages, family edutainment and fashion, to meet the demand,” said Mitch Wilson, the head of retail (Malaysia) at Lendlease Development (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.

The mall’s tenancy rate now stands at 95%, while its phase 2’s tenancy is already 70% secured though the expansion is still under construction, said Wilson. He expects the mall’s occupancy rate to continue to improve further this year, backed by the township’s growing population.

Asked about competition with the newly-opened Central i-City shopping centre here, Wilson said he sees no impact on Setia City Mall’s business.

“Any competition is complimentary to what we are doing here. We (Setia City Mall) have the best fashion mix in the region … and we have excellent connectivity, with accessibility via major highways such as the New Klang Valley Expressway and the new [extension of] the Damansara-Shah Alam Elevated Expressway that is coming soon. From my perspective, we can continue to grow with it (the competition),” Wilson added.

On impact on the mall’s business from the rise of e-commerce, Wilson said online and offline sales can grow together.

“E-commerce in Malaysia is not growing as fast as other countries in the region. As a global retail developer, we see headwinds in the United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore.

“The reality is online sales will continue to grow, so will brick-and-mortar [sales], under the holistic approach. That means both brick-and-mortar can appear [together] with online [stores], and [they] will complement each other,” he added.

He said Setia City Mall recorded an average 4.7% traffic growth for the past three years. “We are anticipating an additional 30% to 50% in traffic footfall on top of the number we already have [after completing the mall’s expansion],” he said, but declined to disclose any numbers.

S P Setia shares settled one sen or 0.76% higher at RM1.33 yesterday, with a market capitalisation of RM5.38 billion.

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