Taubman TBCL’s First Foray Into the Chinese Market
Taubman TCBL and Beijing Wangfujing Department Store Co. Ltd are teaming up for a joint venture that will own a majority stake and manage an upcoming retail development in Xi’an, China.
By Alex Girda, Associate Editor
Xi-an, China—Taubman TCBL and Beijing Wangfujing Department Store Co. Ltd are teaming up for a joint venture that will own a majority stake and manage an upcoming retail development in Xi’an, China. The complex will be located in the Xi’an Saigao City Plaza, a mixed-use project that is currently being developed by Shaanxi Fuli Real Estate Development Co. Ltd. Taubman TCBL is an entity formed in 2011, and it has chosen this particular project to be its first foray into the Chinese commercial real estate market.
Developer Shaanxi Fuli Real Estate will own the remaining shares of the shopping center that has an opening date set for Q3 of 2015. The seven-level facility is the retail component of the Xi’an Saigao City Plaza, a sprawling mixed-use development that will additionally include a five-star hotel, a Holiday Inn Express, a SOHO residential tower, two towers of serviced apartments and an office structure. The gross building area of the Saigao City Plaza, including parking, is a whopping 5.9 million square feet.
The shopping mall will occupy 1.5 million square feet at the mixed-use project, offering up a gross leasable area of approximately 1 million square feet. An anchor tenant is already in place for the yet-to-be-built retail facility as 273,000 square feet of space are reserved for the Wangfujing Department Store. The six-level department store will also include a supermarket, while the entire mall will also feature a supermarket space, a movie theater, a dining area, as well as up to 300 shop spaces featuring moderate to high-end names. Parking at the facility will be ensured by 2,000 underground parking spots, while easy access is provided by the mixed-use development’s close proximity to the intersection of subway lines 2 and 4, in Xingzheng Zhongxin station. The Airport Expressway, Airport High-Speed Line and Xihuang Expressway also facilitate access to the massive development.
Developer Shaanxi Fuli Real Estate Development has chosen the Xi’an area due to its regional importance as a cultural, industrial and educational focal point in China’s central-Northwest. The area also houses the country’s space exploration program, as well as a number of facilities for research and development. Xi’an’s 8 million-strong metro area has been on a consistent upward trend GDP-wise with an annual growth rate of its per capita GDP of over 20 percent for the last four years, making it the 4th best region in China.
Taubman TCBL is a China-based subsidiary of Taubman Asia, itself a division of Taubman Centers, Inc., a real estate investment trust engaged in the development, leasing and management of regional and super regional shopping centers. The company, headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, currently operates across the United States and Asia through its Hong Kong-based, Taubman Asia subsidiary. Beijing Wangfujing Department Store (Group) Co. Ltd is the largest retail group specializing in department store development in Mainland China. The entity currently manages a portfolio comprised of 25 department stores in 17 locations across China. Developer Shaanxi Fuli Real Estate Development Co. Ltd is a Shaanxi-based company that deals with high-quality development. It is responsible for the development of approximately 6.5 million square feet-worth of mixed-use projects bearing the name SAIGAO.