The 12-story Living Mall, operated by Core Pacific City Co (京華城), in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) turned off its lights floor by floor on Thursday night to symbolize its closure after 18 years.
The shopping mall is to officially close its doors today and the iconic granite-clad building on Bade Road is to be torn down to make way for a new office complex.
Speaking at a lights-out ceremony on Thursday, Core Pacific Group (威京集團) chairman Shen Ching-ching (沈慶京) said that he was deeply saddened to have to make such a decision, but had no choice because of huge operating losses.
The business lost NT$18 billion (US$589.9 million) last year, he said, apologizing to the company’s shareholders and the mall’s customers.
“The closing of the mall symbolizes the disillusion of a dream of mine,” the 72-year-old tycoon said with tears in his eyes.
After the closure, some of the mall’s 120 employees plan to retire, while the others would be reassigned to other Core Pacific Group businesses, Shen said.
The office complex that is to replace the mall would be beautiful and comfortable, he said.
When the mall opened in November 2001 it was said to be the biggest in the nation with 62,000 ping (204,959m2) of floor space — 12 stories above ground and eight below.
The mall began as a 24 hour, seven days a week operation, posting revenue of NT$8 billion in its first year.
However, over the years it lost customers due to its distance from the nearest MRT station and the growing popularity of Xinyi District (信義), H&B Business Group (住商不動產) head researcher Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said.
The group in December last year began to seek a buyer for the complex, which was priced at NT$38 billion, then later lowered to NT$34.2 billion.
The complex was finally sold in September to Core Pacific Group affiliate China Petrochemical Development Corp (中石化) for NT$37.2 billion.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS