Thanks for writing in full here

In our kinda competitive retail biz, size of mall matters alot. Needless to say, Pavilion Bukit Jalil, often known as Pavilion 2, will be a very big one and with many thousand carpark bays (can't disclose the amount).

Pavilion Bukit Jalil will be a very different mall compared to the rest of malls that is operated by them currently and in the market today.

The frequent upgrade in design of the mall tells you that the developer/owner group is constantly wanting the best of trends and design for the mall. In case readers didn't know, the mall has its own retail architect - designed by Westfield-hired Leonard Design based in the UK.

Several renderings of The Park 2 showed that a portion of the development would face the very happening outdoor plaza outside the mall. Now this is gonna be a game changer in terms of vibrancy and how they designed the waterscapes that lined the terraces of F&B cabanas and decks.

Pavilion Bukit Jalil is often compared to Pavilion KL, but in reality, it's a different target market. Here we are facing 99% local population and the mass markets. However, if you study Pavilion KL, only a section/row of the malls are dotted with designer brands. Majority of its tenant mix are appealing to locals as well as foreign tourists. And majority of those tenants are already present in suburban malls like Sunway Pyramid and 1 Utama, which does include the potential of Pavilion Bukit Jalil hosting them in the future.

There are two sides of a coin when talking about retail industry today. There are no clear conclusion as the facts may vary according to circumstances during this challenging times.

First of all, I'm talking in the perspective of a mall operator not a retail shop owner. A mall that generates income growth continuously, example like those in the REITs does not necessarily mean that an individual retail shop tenant they have are doing well.

Yes size is necessary to bring anchor tenants. And at this times, yes, it is not necessary that big malls will mean better (refer to this week's Focus M), but generally this is the rule of thumb for retail consultants advising developers. This is the worst case scenario. Anchor tenants pay the lowest rentals but they are required to bring the traffic footfall, at least this is my opinion.

I worked with some of the biggest names in retail consulting as I was working in a developer. Retail consultants adviced us not to build malls that are too small like less than 300,000 sq ft as we will be neither big or small, and if small, we will not be able to achieve sufficient footfall for tenants and we will not be able to bring anchors (small also means lesser carparks).

Only a very small % of small to mid-sized malls are doing well, at least financially. Bangsar Shopping Centre used to be one of the top performer for neighbourhood mall. Mind you, the shops in Solaris Dutamas are not part of Publika Mall management and in Publika, anchors like BIG contribute almost majority of their income while the rest are not doing really well. Alot of neighbourhood malls like Cheras Leisure Mall and Main Place Mall are heavily dependent on certain F&B tenants and key tenants like their supermarket and they do not necessarily reflect growth in mall operator's' income because some of these tenants rental rates are low to begin with especially supermarket.

In recent times, out of a dozen malls that opened over the last many years, most of them neighbourhood malls, most of them don't do well. One mall that might stand out is probably the best of all of them is IOI City Mall, which is a big mall, not a neighbourhood mall.

Pavilion KL has a net lettable area of 1,335,119 sq ft with a gross floor area of 2,202,557 sq ft, and hence its a mid-sized mall that we have. There is no word that I was saying it was doing well, although on the mall operator level, there is a relatively so-so income growth (read Pav REIT) due to renewals and higher rentals for some tenants. On the individual retail tenant perspective, not all tenants are doing well, and yes there are tenants that have sales crunch during this times.

Some of our big malls do practise accrued rentals... so some tenants have been owing their rental payments for months. Many malls today also do track their tenant's sales performance. But the bottomline is some of our more established, big malls are still able to RAISE rental income especially towards F&B tenants signifying income growth.

For the size that Pavilion BJ has, I think it has great potential and it has a great chance of succeed if you look at their brief. It has large cineplex, a large entertainment feature and large foodcourts and these will drive the traffic of its catchment market Mad.


(The most recent mall leasing event that I attended is EkoCheras Mall. It might look quite promising but I have comments which is another day's topic.)

This post has been edited by accetera: Sep 24 2016, 11:16 PM

Based on most recent projects in KL, we found that if we would to follow the residential title methodology of unit density per acre, then it is on the upward trend / rising...

This is a commercial land, so we use plot ratio, and definitely, being the epicentre and final phase of BJC, we shall expect a slightly higher plot ratio.

Buyers are then returned with a much higher no. of lifts per unit, which i think will be one of the biggest selling point here.

U sure it's not a selling point? Did you ask an M&E Engineer? When you calculate the waiting time is much lesser hence this is the fact that you cannot deny.

I'm a prospect buyer.

This post has been edited by accetera: Sep 28 2016, 06:40 PM

The materials and specs and ID better than The Park Sky.

2nd block many units

Ongoing.

The sales gallery will be demolished in coming months to makeway for the Mall.

The sales gallery will relocate into the Signature shops as by then it will be VP to owners.

70% sold for Tower 1... the rest in process of loan and signing SPA.

Congrats to all owners... the mall is opening on 3 Dec.