Interview by Yuki Lei
The “Treasure Island Resort World Shopping Centre Macau” on Praça de Ferreira do Amaral is expected to have its soft opening in the fourth quarter of this year, i.e., between October and December, with 50 to 60 percent of its retail brands and attractions, such as a seven-screen “modern theatre” by the Bona Film Group and famous French department store Galeries Lafayette, as well as high-end fitness centre UFC Gym, set to open in the first phase, JLL Macau and Zhuhai General Manager Oliver Tong Wai Lok told The Macau Post Daily yesterday during an interview at his office in the Finance and IT (FIT) Centre of Macau in Nam Van.
Professional real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle Limited (JLL) has been appointed as the exclusive leasing and marketing consultant of the five-storey shopping centre.
Tong also said that details about the property’s “brand-new” five-star hotel were expected to be announced in “two to three” weeks, adding he believed that only about 200 guestrooms will be available in the early stage of its trial run.
With a total of 650 hotel guestrooms, Tong said he believed that the five-star hotel will be “quite a positive” help to the entire local tourism industry, considering the short supply of hotel guestrooms in Macau.
According to Tong, among its featured guestrooms, some even have an open-air rotenburo (outdoor bath).
Considering the competition around the hotel, Tong said he believed that a complementary development effect will take place to guarantee both the price and quality of its services.
The hotel is located next to Praça de Ferreira do Amaral – the city’s public transport hub connecting the Macau peninsula to Cotai and Taipa. The hotel segment of the property covers an area of 8,100 square metres with a height of 70 metres.
The property will be the largest shopping centre in the Macau peninsula, according to Tong, covering an area of 400,000 square feet (37,161 square metres), featuring attractions such as Chinese and Western restaurants, a supermarket, a children’s playground and the first Bona cinema in Hong Kong and Macau, as well as the first top French department store in Macau – Galeries Lafayette which occupies almost one-fifth of the shopping centre’s total area, among other facilities, with an expectation of a high proportion of customers to be locals.
The Galeries Lafayette store in the shopping centre will mark the fourth branch of the French department store chain in China.
According to a previous JLL statement, the Bona Film Group has set up the most advanced movie theatre in the Macau peninsula, covering an area of about 30,000 square feet (2,787 square metres) in the shopping centre.
Tong noted that about 80 percent of the retail outlets have been rented out, with most of the retailers in the shopping centre being internationally renowned brands, of which “quite a few” are entering the Macau market for the first time.
Managed by YOHO Group and developed by Forward Fashion (International) Holdings Company Limited, the new non-gaming property was previously scheduled to have its soft opening last October and was expected to officially open in December last year. However, due to various factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Tong said that the opening date has been postponed until later this year.
The property was originally developed by Genting Hong Kong, which announced in November 2020 its decision to sell its stake in the “Treasure Island Resort World Shopping Centre Macau” project to local investor Ao Mio Leong for HK$750 million.
When asked whether there are any changes in the local retail market after the three-year-long COVID-19 pandemic, Tong said that tourists’ consumption patterns were focused on two poles, with one segment focused on buying luxury-brand products, while the other was likely to spend their money in local neighbourhoods, to the detriment of those businesses between the two segments, such as sports fashion shops.
Instead of focusing just on the number of visitor arrivals, Tong urged the government to solve the existing problem of the city’s carrying capacity.
JLL Macau and Zhuhai General Manager Oliver Tong Wai Lok poses after yesterday’s interview with The Macau Post Daily at his Finance and IT (FIT) Centre of Macau office in Nam Van.
– Photo: Yuki Lei
This photo taken on Saturday shows the “Treasure Island Resort World Shopping Centre Macau” on Praça de Ferreira do Amaral, set to open in the fourth quarter of this year. – Photo: MPDG
