For about 13 years, the only place to go in Macau for weekend shopping and window browsing was the Yaohan department store. Strategically located by the ferry terminal on the Macau peninsula, it has been a favourite haunt of locals, tourists and, increasingly, cashed-up mainland visitors eager to offload their casino winnings. Many routinely spend thousands of patacas on everything from brand names to children's clothing, often to save on high mainland tariffs across the border.
But the scene is about to change. In the coming three years, Macau is expected to open more than 6 million sqft of shopping real estate. About 4.2 million sqft of this is earmarked for reclaimed land on Cotai, potentially creating a purpose-built retail centre from scratch, something unprecedented in the world today.
'By any measure, there's no retail in Macau today,' Taubman Asia president Morgan Parker said, reflecting on the transformation Macau is about to see.
'Here, you have the opportunity to create that retail location. History usually tells you where the retail location is ... because we have this strong legacy and strong behavioural patterns existing. Macau is a blank sheet. You are creating or influencing what becomes the commercial centre of Macau.'
Taubman Asia is a subsidiary of New York-listed real estate investment trust Taubman Centres, which has a US$6 billion portfolio of shopping malls in the US. Taubman Centres acquired a 22 per cent stake in the retail portion of the HK$16 billion Macau Studio City casino resort, which is being built by Cyber One Agents, a joint venture between Hong Kong-based eSun Holdings and New Cotai. Taubman Asia will manage the retail component.
With the Venetian casino and the 86,000 sqft DFS Galleria in the mall of the Four Seasons Hotel, both built by Las Vegas Sands, the mammoth Macau Studio City is expected to anchor the Cotai Strip in terms of retail space. The project is slated for a 2009 opening that will transform shopping in the former enclave.