Sun Hung Kai Properties plans a HK$100 million facelift next year for its six-year-old APM shopping mall.
The mall is near Kwun Tong MTR station in East Kowloon, earmarked by the government as the site of a second core business district.
'Originally, we planned to spend HK$80 million on the facelift. But we decided to increase the budget to HK$100 million after the announcement that East Kowloon was to be redeveloped,' SHKP leasing department general manager Maureen Fung Sau-yim said.
'We are now working out the details, but the initial plan is to increase the number of shops at APM from the present 180 to as many as 250.' The renovation would begin after the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts on January 23, and was due to be completed in two to three years.
Fung said the space allocated to retailers of audio-visual equipment and information technology products would be expanded to 100,000 square feet, from the present 45,000. Other revamps would include installing new escalators leading shoppers to upper floors of the seven-level APM, a redesign of the food court, and new toilets featuring differently themed decor on each level.
'In order to generate innovative ideas, a toilet-design competition will be held,' Fung said.