The Taipei Information Park, a multi-functional electronics shopping complex that is being constructed by a subsidiary of the Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), is scheduled to start looking for tenants in April before opening for business in the summer of next year, the company said.
Syntrend Creative Park Co Ltd (三創數位), which won the Taipei City Government’s build-operate-transfer (BOT) tender in 2010 to build the electronics mall, yesterday held a topping-out ceremony at the NT$3.8 billion (US$131.2 million) project’s construction site.
“Taipei Information Park will be a new space for people to experience the latest technological trends,” Syntrend chairman Gou Shou-cheng (郭守正) said.
“It will be a park built for institutions to stage large tech expos, for firms to sell the most advanced gadgets through physical or virtual stores, and most importantly, for customers to enjoy their shopping experience,” he added.
“The Taipei Information Park aims at being a ‘hub of technology’ in Taiwan, becoming Taipei’s newest landmark and the nation’s first truly customer-friendly shopping environment. It has also been designed to be a birthplace for young entrepreneurs to start their businesses,” the 37-year-old son of Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) said.
Located in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正), the 8,894m2 Taipei Information Park consists of 12 floors above ground and six floors underground, with up to 66,200m2 of floor area and more than 2,000 parking lots in basement garages.
The company has invited well-known brands, including the US’ Apple Inc and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, to open flagship stores on the first and second floors as well as holding talks with foreign firms on running labs to cultivate start-ups.
Syntrend has identified photography as one of the park’s main selling points, Syntrend chief executive officer Meili Liao (廖美立) told reporters during a question-and-answer session after the ceremony.
“As taking photographs using smartphones has become many people’s favorite leisure activity, more people are becoming interested in editing their pictures,” Liao said.
“We have invited many firms to open workshops, theaters and stores on two to three floors in the park to attract customers who are either amateur or professional photographers and who have a strong demand for digital photography peripherals,” she added.
The park will also be available for companies to hold forums and launch new products, as well as to open restaurants, bookstores and gyms, Liao said.
Overall, the park is expected to create more than 15,000 jobs after it opens, Liao added.
“We are very confident that the Taipei Information Park will delight local and foreign firms,” Liao said.
“Our goal is to develop a superior version of Japan’s Akihabara Electric Town, and we are confident that we will achieve our aims,” she said.
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