Timeplus mall to close despite offer to tenants of halved rentals
All the shops at Timeplus, a shopping centre near Times Square in Causeway Bay partly owned by Yu Ming Investment, will close by the end of this month.
Forty per cent of the tenants declined to renew their leases even though rents had been halved, tenants and agents said.
The closure of the 99 shops at Timeplus, formerly the site of the popular Chuen Cheung Kui Restaurant, comes at a time when consumer sentiment has been hurt by the slumping stock market.
Tony Lo Chiu-ho, sales director in Midland Realty's retail department, said Timeplus' landlord offered in August a 50 per cent rent cut in new leases with a six-month term. Sixty per cent of existing tenants signed up.
'But the response failed to meet the landlord's 80 per cent target. So it decided to take back the mall for repositioning,' said Mr Lo, one of the agents who arranged the lease renewal.
He played down the impact of the grim economic outlook, saying the main reason fewer tenants renewed than expected was the short leasing period.
In 2005, Yu Ming bought the first three floors of the building on Percival Street for HK$350 million. The property was renamed Timeplus after the firm spent an additional HK$150 million to divide it into 99 shops, ranging from 104 square feet to 555 sqft each.
A tenant said his business had sunk into the red since early this year.
'All we heard was bad news of either companies closing down or sacking workers. No one is interested in spending, as many people have seen their wealth in the stock market wiped out by half,' said the tenant.
He said the rent had been cut to HK$10,000 a month, but it was not worth renewing the lease.
Most tenants appreciated the landlord's efforts to promote the shopping centre, but the entrance was too small to draw shoppers, he said.
A spokeswoman at Yu Ming refused to comment on the rent cut but said the shopping centre would be put up for lease again after it was vacated.
The firm has decided to lease the whole shopping centre to one or two large tenants. Possibilities include beauty and cosmetics or fashion retailers, she said.
