ABOUT half of the retail space at the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort has already been taken up, and the stores will feature over 30 brands that are new to Singapore.
The $5.4 billion Marina Bay Sands project is under construction now, and will have 800,000 sq ft of retail space for about 300 stores when it is completed in 2010.
“We will have a lot of fashion-forward, leading edge retail … It will be a mixture Predominantly European because that’s where the high-end fashion mainly comes from but it will be a mixture of European, some American brands, some Japanese, some Korean,” said Mr David Sylvester, vice president, retail development Asia, Las Vegas Sands, the parent company of Marina Bay Sands.
Mr Sylvester, who was speaking at a retail conference in Singapore, said there are no plans yet to adjust rents to match the slowing economy, and that the company remains positive about the future.
“Obviously there’s been a lot of concerns about the economic environment at the moment, but everybody has been very positive on MBS (Marina Bay Sands) because by the time we open, we are talking about end of 2009. We got to think that things will turn around by then,” he said.
The retail component of the resort is due to be opened in two phases the luxury stores will open at the end of next year, with the rest ready to do business in 2010.
More details of the retail concepts will be announced early next year.
Competition in the retail sector is expected to be stiff next year, with four new malls ION, Orchard Central, Mandarin Gallery and 313@Somerset coming up along Orchard Road, Singapore’s prime retail belt.
But Mr Sylvester said that Sands’ retail space, which is about 20 per cent smaller than Singapore’s largest shopping mall at VivoCity, will complement rather than compete with offerings there.
Source : Today - 5 Dec 2008
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