if u look at successful malls besides the size (tends to be at least 1.2 m sq ft NLA at least), another impt factor is that they all are connected to or located very nearby corporate office towers that are highly occupied. Bandar Utama has 1 First Avenue, Plaza IBM, KPMG tower. These 3 office towers are fully occupied. Midvalley has Boulevard n Arcc Offices, KLCC Sunsuria has petronas twin tower office, menara maxis, menara public bank, menara TA, Wisma Selangor Dredging. Even Pavillion has Menara Standard Chartered and Wisma Genting just barely 60 metres away. These fully occupied office blocks provide constant foot traffic to the malls daily besides tourists. But tourists are seasonal only, whereas white collar offices provides the daily turnover. If ekocheras mall is to succeed, then the developer better make sure their office tower is highly occupied (80 to 90%). If not the mall will become a white elephant in due time. The residential units alone are not sufficient to fire up the mall biz. Why? bcoz most of the "normal" residents leave home at 745am (ir earlier) to go to work to beat the jam and return home at 8 to 830pm. So thr is very limited time for them to visit their mall downstairs, whereas office workers with only 1 hour lunch have not much choice but to eat inside the mall or food court as they dont have much time to venture outside. In between they will also visit retail outlets to purchase their needed items as it will b very convenient for them to do their shopping since their offices are located within the integrated project.

Good analysis!

convesely if u see malls that are not doing so well besides smallish in size (normally below 700 sq ft NLA), they are typically surrounded by residential houses or service apartments but do not hv much integration with corporate offices which are fully tenanted. A few examples are Paradigm mall, Tropicana mall, Atria, Quill, Jaya Mall, The 19 USJ City mall and SS2 mall. These malls are not thriving as they do NOT have constant foot traffic from white collar office workers working in nearby corporate office towers. With 40 new malls set to open by next year, i wonder how these malls will survive when intense competition sets in for these retail malls.

So bro, what would you like to suggest for the EKC mall management team?
To monitor the performance of the 40 new plus existing old malls for the next year and re-strategize?
I hope they are reading this forum.

This post has been edited by Jagalat: Sep 10 2015, 05:17 PM

one city mall , office fully tenanted n size is big also empty..

one city mall is called The Place. Its not big. 500 sq ft NLA only and the developer also did a mistake by selling the retail space
To hv a successful mall another key factor is for the developer not to sell any of the retail space but to hold it for better tenant control.

EKC should look into how to get their corporate office tower be fully tenanted by MNC companies and also big listed companies. As a general rule of thumb, mncs normally pay 20 to 30% more than local companies. By getting these better paid workers into their corporate office tower, these workers have more disposable income to spend at ekomall which is good for the business of the food and retail shops. This is key to the success of ekomall. the resi units alone cannot fire up the biz of the mall. The "normal' residents at block J, H and E will leave at 730 am to work to beat d jam and rtn late maybe 8 to 830pm, not leaving them with much discretionary time 2 shop. Only the retirees got lots of time to hang around eko mall but retirees do not have active income anymore so they will be careful with their spending. This group would not be able to drive the ekomall biz. The high paid white collar workers working in the corporate office tower can drive the eko mall business. So attention should be paid to filling up ekocheras corporate office tower with mnc companies and other big stable malaysian companies who are good pay masters. The mall need to leverage on the tenants of the corporate office tower as their key stable customers, then the hotel guests and lastly the residence staying in block J, H and block E.

Well say bro..
Thanks for the analysis of suggested key success for Ekomall.
Have also read your similar comment from you have been spelt in the MCT REO thread.

The Ekocheras has a few different scenarios
1) Unlike MCT mall having the planning and execution to bring in more MNC companies, the office units of EKC are sold to public(EKV may keep a little).
Hence, I am not sure how the MNC companies would like to setup their offices by renting from public
2) According to the video of river of life, EKV's HQ will be built there (ie not in EKC)
3) There are commercial area opposite to Ekomall, ie the retail shops at Tmn Segar and Leisure Mall.
What can Ekomall do to leverage and draw crowd from Tmn Segar commercial area.
4) Ekomall is located within established and mature surrounding(Tayton View, Mutiara Barat, Billion, Awana Puri.
There are will be less development. What can Ekomall do to target this group of nearby "residential" customers?
4) Via MRT, Ekomall is connected to Kajang side.
What are the main features Ekomall can/will have to attract crowd from Kajang direction?

Any further analysis and suggestions are welcome.
Thanks a lot, bro.



This post has been edited by Jagalat: Sep 11 2015, 04:33 PM

I am pretty worried for EKC mall. Just look at Cheras Sentral and Viva Mall. They are all dead

Just wonder how much unit left for the duplex and price available?

just call their sales office and check or call 0127073350 (head of marketing - joe wong)

no integration with corporate offices..that's their downfall.

Jagalat-kor, ekocheras is having only 1 block of office tower and selling at average price of rm800 psf. I do not know what is the size of Ekocheras office suites in totality from NLA perspective. Apparently sales of their office suites have been brisk. The hotel guest can also provide foot traffic to ekocheras mall. From my view, the white collar office workers will provide the most stable foot traffic to the mall, followed by the hotel guest and lastly the residents of block J, H & E, along this order. As a comparison, upcoming MCT mall in usj will have equivalent size of 1.5 m sq ft NLA with its 3 blocks of grade A office towers which also commands 1.5m sq ft NLA From a strategic perspective, MCT got their development concept correct as they plan to bring in 15,000 white collar workers into their 3 blocks of grade A office towers. They are not selling the office blocks but will be owning the office blocks and leasing them to their chosen segment of tenants (preferable higher paying MNCs and big listed malaysian companies). This would create the perfect synergy for their MCT mall as these higher paid white collar workers will have more disposable income to spend in the mall. Sorry to hijack this forum with another project but Jagalat-kor and myself just wanted to draw a comparison between the 2 integrated projects.

The car park opposite to EKC is 70% completed..


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Mall management is KEY of success!

i wonder if any purchasers will drop out since the 2nd payment has yet to be collected as its a slowdown for property mrk and we bought this ekocheras at its pricing peak in 2013 sept.

Doubt so as prices have already increased since then if you've gotten in earlier. If you sell at launch price, I'm pretty sure it will sell so your downside is limited.

I heard block J and H have been fully sold recently from a vested sales agent with 1 drop out 762sqft unit but asking for 560k.

I might be biased but I do genuinely think that this is a strategic location in Cheras. I believe there was a discussion previously that regardless of the mall success, it is still a good buy as the mall is just an icing on top given its location. Leisure Mall is just around the corner too and with a covered link bridge to the MRT station, it is a commuter's dream to live in one if they work in the city. Say goodbye to traffic jams and car maintenance costs (subject to the MRT being efficient of course).

Go for the long game and I believe you'll be quids in. As long as you have the holding power, you can demand a price. If price is low, then keep holding on to it and rent it out. Once everything is up and running for Cheras (eg. Ikea, velocity, mrt etc.), i think value will start pouring in.

All I wish right now is that the developer takes this development seriously by ensuring the property finishes on time, has a good quality finish and good maintenance and management of the property on an ongoing basis upon completion. The potential is there so it will be a shame for the developer not to take this opportunity to build a solid passive income for their future earnings. If the mall is a success, then I reckon this will be one of the best developments in KL South.

BlkJ site.... taken about 2 hrs ago....
Cement floor in progess.....
Is that B3?

BlkJ site.... Zoom to see cement......

BlkJ site again ...From left angle.....