President plans giant mall

The President Group (統一集團) announced plans yesterday to spend NT$18 billion to build a monument to consumerism in Kaohsiung called the "Dream Mall" (統一夢公園). The 23,000-ping project is scheduled to start in August and be completed over the next three years.

The group plans to hold a ground-breaking ceremony for on Aug. 9, said Yeh Chih-chung (葉致中), general manager of the Tung Li Development Co Ltd (統立開發).

Tung Li is wholly owned by the President International Development Corp (統一國際開發), which is the President Group's holding company. President International's major business is developing shopping centers and investing in high-tech industries, primarily biotechnology and communications.

The shopping mall project is the first of a three-phase multiple-use complex project which President Group is planning to construct over the next decade, Yeh said, adding that the complex will include residential and office buildings plus a five-star hotel.

The entire project will call for an investment of NT$30 billion and will create 14,500 new job opportunities, Yeh said.

"The first phase of the investment project will be focused on the shopping mall and is expected to begin operations in 2004.

"We expect it to attract roughly 25 million people to visit us every year, with estimated annual sales up to NT$20 billion," Tung Li spokesman Joyce Chang-Chien (張簡秀卿) told the Taipei Times by phone yesterday.

According to Chang-Chien, the shopping mall project will rise nine stories, with three basement levels and is expected to accommodate a movie theater complex, a department store, as well as more than 800 retail stores and entertainment facilities.

Tung Li has signed letters of intent from many of the big international players, including Spean Bridge Cinema, Cinemark, Hand's Tailung, Tower Records, Dave & Buster's, Toys `R' Us, Eslite bookstore and Alexandra fitness center, Chang-Chien said.

"We have also talked with other famous names such as Warner Village and Carrefour, and have received a positive response from them," she said.

Two American design firms are invloved in the project -- shopping mall design house RTKL and retail business consultant CB Richard Ellis.

Asked why the President Group would chose to construct a shopping mall during an economic slump, Yeh said now is the right time because manpower and construction costs are cheaper as a result of the sluggish domestic economy this year.

The President Group's mall is not the first mega shopping center to have its eye on Kaohsiung, however. The Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) is scheduled to open a 32,000-ping mall, the "FE21 Mega" (高雄大遠百), in October.