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Kuanghua Digital New Plaza officially opens on Saturday

The Kuanghua Digital New Plaza will officially open to the public on Saturday, two years after its predecessor, the landmark Kuanghua Market, was demolished.

The plaza, located at the intersection of Civic Boulevard and Xinsheng N Road, has been built to accommodate about 270 Kuanghua Market retailers.

Wang San-chung (王三中), a division chief at Taipei City’s Market Administration Office, told a press conference yesterday that the new six-floor building will be the biggest electronic store in the city and feature everything from computers and other consumer electronics to communications products.

LUCKY DRAWS

Wang said retailers will offer up to 50 percent discounts on various products and lucky draw chances every weekend until Aug. 16.

The plaza, which cost the city government NT$700 million, was erected after former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration decided to tear down the Kuanghua overpass due to safety concerns in 2006.

Vendors in the 32-year-old, two-story market under the expressway at the corner of Xinsheng N Road and Bade Road were moved to nearby Jinshan N Road while the new building was being built.

HISTORY

Kuanghua Market was opened in 1974 to accommodate about 70 second-hand book sellers spread out along Guling Sreet, although the complex later attracted jade and antique retailers. In its last years, computer and electronics vendors dominated the market.

In response to some vendors’ worries that the new venue would not attract as much business as the old market, Wang said the plaza offered a more comfortable and safer shopping environment.

RENT CONCERNS

Samsung Electronics Taiwan Co, which became the first company to open its store in the Kuanghua Digital New Plaza yesterday, said the rent for its 20-ping store is almost NT$15 million (US$493.6 million) a year, which is about what it pays for its store in the Neo 19 building in Xinyi District.

“Unlike our store in the Neo 19 building, however, this store is giving us a lot of pressure because retailers on the first floor are only allowed to display our new products and models, and are barred from doing business,” said a Samsung official who wished to remain anonymous.

If adding fees such as maintenance, personnel and advertising, the new store will cost the company nearly NT$30 million a year, while generating no direct income, the official said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JERRY LIN
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