Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/122387
months after launching its first China development, a 1 million-square-foot shopping center going up in Xi'an. "China is our number-one growth market globally, and the investments are in line with our global strategy," René Tremblay, president of Taubman Asia, told this publication. Taubman entered China in 2011, the year it acquired a controlling stake in TCBL Consulting, a Beijing-based retail real estate consultant firm. When Taubman sold the consultant firm late last year, it retained a team of specialists to focus on acquiring, developing, leasing and managing high-quality and sustainable retail properties, according to Tremblay. "We had already been pursuing developments in China prior to acquiring the consultancy division in 2011," Tremblay said. "It has just been a matter of finding the right partner and the right properties." Taubman is one of the newest entrants to China's retail development market, which is crowded with both domestic and international firms. The most prolific foreign retail builder here is Singapore-based CapitaMalls Asia, which owns about 50 retail projects in China, including Raffles City. CapitaMalls' landmark shopping malls in China are CapitaMall Crystal, in Beijing; CapitaMall Jinniu, in Chengdu; and Hongkou Plaza and Raffles City Shanghai, both in Shanghai. Another international heavyweight is Tesco, which has ventured into lower-tier cities with its Lifespace shopping malls. Competition for the most desirable sites is intense and has moved beyond the first-tier cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen and into third- and fourth-tier markets, according to James Hawkey, Cushman & Wakefield's managing director of Asia-Pacific retail services. "There are a large number of overseas developers active in the shopping center market in singapore–based CapiTaMaLLs asia oWns abouT 50 MaLLs in CHina, inCLuding THis one, CapiTaMaLL TaiYanggong, in beiJing. 248 SC T / M a y 2 0 1 3 China," Hawkey said. "The Chinese development market is currently intensely competitive, with massive investment in shopping centers nationwide." International firms must contend with a growing number of domestic retail developers, some of which have established a strong track record. The Dalian Wanda Group has developed 49 Wanda Plaza shopping centers over the past decade and has 37 more under development, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Founded in 1988, Beijing-based Wanda Group is one of the world's largest real estate developers and owners, with commercial properties that comprise shopping centers, department stores, hotels, karaoke centers and movie theaters across China, as well as the U.S.-based AMC Entertainment cinema chain, which it acquired last year. Underscoring Wanda Group's growing importance on the world stage, its chairman and president spoke last September at the ICSC Retail Real Estate Summit, in Shanghai, about the global retail real estate market. "Wanda has now focused on large retail-lead mixed-use projects for some 10 years," Hawkey said. "The group now has an impressive portfolio of increasingly high-quality, well-tenanted centers." Mixed-use developer Swire Properties, founded in Hong Kong in 1972, has opened three projects containing retail space on the mainland: Sanlitun Village and Indigo are both in Beijing, and TaiKoo Hui is in Guangzhou. Swire has projects under way also in Chengdu and Shanghai. Hang Lung is another Hong Kong developer with strong retail experience. Known for its luxury developments, Hang Lung has completed shopping centers in Shanghai, Shenyang and Jinan and is developing retail properties in Tianjin, Dalian and Wuxi, according to Cushman & Wakefield. China Resources, another Chinese developer, has a growing portfolio of shopping centers