Jewellers and luxury international brands have edged out restaurants in the upmarket IFC Mall in Central.
Commercial landlord Sun Hung Kai Properties has revamped the tenant mix of its joint-venture retail arcade by not renewing lease agreements with 10 restaurants to make room for those willing to pay much higher rents for the prime space.
'Over the past 18 months we have replaced the restaurants with tenants selling jewellery, watches, and international fashion brands who could afford to pay higher rents,' said Karim Azar, assistant general manager for retail leasing at the mall.
The restructuring has seen space for food and beverage trimmed from 28 per cent of the total retail space available to 24 per cent. The mall has a lettable area of 450,000 sq ft.
Remaining food outlets would occupy reduced areas, down from as much as 4,000 sq ft to between just 300 and 500 sq ft. 'These smaller outlets will now be selling things such as ice cream and yogurt,' said Azar.
The change in tenant mix by the largest developer in Hong Kong in terms of market capitalisation sees the new tenants paying rentals up to three times higher than those paid by the restaurants. While restaurants typically paid HK$100 per sq ft per month, said Azar, watch and jewellery retailers could afford to pay up to HK$300 per sq ft.
'We are benefitting from the limited supply of space in Central and have been able to raise our rents as so many big brands want to have a presence here,' he said. Visitors to the mall would not be inconvenienced by the changes because there were lots of restaurants nearby, said Azar.