In an ongoing dispute over a profitable shopping mall, Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) accused the Keelung City Government of selling the “golden goose” and violently evicting the original operator.
The Keelung E-Square Mall (基隆東岸商場) has been a profitable for many years, with commercial rights held by Taiwanese firm NET Fashion Development Co, which also leases out space to retail stores, from which the city government had received an annual rights payment of NT$50.5 million (US$1.61 million), Lin said yesterday.
Lin of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was Keelung mayor from 2014 to 2022, while the current mayor, George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), emerged victorious in the mayoral election in 2022 to take charge of the Keelung City Government.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Lin said that Hsieh violently evicted NET Co from the mall, while handing over the “golden goose” through a secret deal under an opaque process to the new operator, the Breeze Group.
Separately yesterday, Hsieh at a press conference urged Lin to come forward and provide a clear explanation to the public of the decisionmaking process regarding the property during his [Lin’s] mayorship.
Questioning Lin on why the property right was not registered during his term, Hsieh said the city government now has the an obligation to protect its property.
NET, for its part, has filed a lawsuit, citing illegal action by Hsieh and the city government, in carrying out a “nighttime raid” for unannounced eviction in the early hours of Feb. 1, in which city officials, accompanied by 40 police officers, hauled away its belongings and shut down the NET store at the mall, as well as changing the locks to prevent re-entry.
In the past few days, NET has placed an advert in newspapers demanding that Hsieh as city mayor apologize for the “bandit action” on Feb. 1, which its lawyers claim was illegal, abuse of government authority, larceny and causing damage to private property, resulting in the loss of more than NT$10 million for the company.
NET said it obtained the right for the commercial operation of the complex in 2016, in cooperation with Lucky Parking Co (大日開發), which previously operated the complex as a parking lot, and invested NT$300 million to convert and renovate the second to fourth floors at E-Square Mall.
“We did not know at the time, that the previous operator had not signed the property right agreement for the mall’s second to fourth floor space, which led to later issues and disputes,” NET said, adding that it still holds the legal rights to the property and rights to commercial operation.
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