Eslite Group (誠品集團) is scheduled to launch apartment sales in China next month as part of its development of an urban cultural complex in Suzhou that will include a bookstore and a department store
Eslite yesterday announced that its project in Suzhou will include two residential buildings with a total of 292 apartments, with floor areas varying from 94m2 to 350m2.
“Pre-sales of these apartments will begin in late June,” Eslite Group vice chairwoman Mercy Wu (吳旻潔) told a press conference in Taipei, adding that more details, including pricing, will be announced next month.
Eslite Group is collaborating with Mitsubishi Estate Co Ltd, one of Japan’s major construction firms, in building the Suzhou complex. The two companies own a 40-year superficies right for the commercial area of the complex, with a 70-year right to the residential buildings.
Eslite hopes a leasehold contract that guarantees its land ownership for as long as 70 years will allow it to operate without land disputes and build a sustainable operation in the city.
The group’s bookstores and department stores in Taiwan and Hong Kong are all located within leased buildings under short-term contracts.
Wu said the group will introduce products made by Taiwanese designers to its outlets in China, aiming to lower barriers of entry for them.
The Suzhou stores are set to launch operations in the second quarter of next year.
Eslite Group also is scheduled to launch a second department store and bookstore in China in the middle of next year, in Shanghai.
As with the Taiwanese market, the group plans to launch two or three department stores per year in China.
Its first boutique hotel is to open in Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (松山文創園區) next month, with 104 rooms.
Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活), the group’s department store unit, which is listed on the GRETAI Securities Market, reported net income of NT$94.19 million (US$3.12 million), or NT$2.09 per share, in the first three months this year, compared with NT$83.08 million, or NT$1.89 per share, a year earlier, company statistics showed.
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