A case based study of success factors for shopping malls that revitalized from industrial buildings in Hong Kong

Abstract

The government has activated a revitalization scheme for industrial buildings to utilise the obsolete industrial land use and encouraged developers to apply for land use conversion of industrial buildings for revitalization by several pull factor measures in 2009. In this connection, there are a number of shopping malls that have been revitalized from industrial buildings since 2010. The malls include D2 Place in Lai Chi Kok, life@KCC and KC100 at Kwai Hing, The Wave at Kwun Tong and The Mills at Tsuen Wan. The Mills, life@KCC and Sun Kwai Hing Plaza were selected for a case based study is conducted to understand the success factors for shipping malls that revitalized from industrial buildings in Hong Kong, Both The Mills and life@KCC are revitalized from industrial buildings in Tsuen Wan and Kwai Hing respectively, while Sun Kwai Hing Plaza is an over 30 years old medium-scale shopping mall that build from scratch in Kwai Hing. The research would identify the strengths and weaknesses of the shopping malls that are revitalized from industrial buildings as well as compare with the mall that was built from scratch. Site observation, in-depth interview with stakeholders of the selected malls and questionnaire survey was arranged to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the mall and the performance of the malls. Moreover, survey was conducted to generalise the customer satisfaction towards the mall and the degree of willingness of revisiting the mall. Also, important factors contributing to the revisit of shopping malls revitalized from industrial building were also identified. Based on the survey, The Mills has the highest score for customer satisfaction and the highest tendency of customers revisiting the mall due to its historical background and strong positioning as a pet friendly mall. The Mills has also the longest customer stay as it has exhibitions and various open spaces for customers to spend time on. Moreover, life@KCC has the highest score in promotion as it has a wide range of promotion campaigns and parking offers. On the other hand, most respondents were disappointed with the shopping mall design of Sun Kwai Hing Plaza as it is aged and old fashioned. In addition, “trade and tenant mix” is the most important factor for customers to revisit the shopping mall revitalized from industrial building and “shopping management” is the less effective in attracting customers to revisit the shopping mall revitalized from industrial building. A good trade and tenant mix meaning that the shops match the needs of the customers. Hence, leading to high satisfaction and more tendency for revisiting. In-depth interviews were conducted with the property managers and tenants of The Mills, life@KCC and Sun Kwai Hing Plaza respectively. They have shared important points regarding their malls based on their observation and experience. These include the strengths and weaknesses of the malls, recommendations to the malls and observations of the malls. Recommendations were given to The Mills, life@KCC as well as Sun Kwai Hing Plaza respectively. As a case based study, the findings may not be able to However, it provided a detailed and informative findings that are useful for developers to make future decision.