The 12-story Living Mall, operated by Core Pacific City Co (京華城), in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) turned off its lights floor by floor on Thursday night to symbolize its closure after 18 years.
The shopping mall is to officially close its doors today and the iconic granite-clad building on Bade Road is to be torn down to make way for a new office complex.
Speaking at a lights-out ceremony on Thursday, Core Pacific Group (威京集團) chairman Shen Ching-ching (沈慶京) said that he was deeply saddened to have to make such a decision, but had no choice because of huge operating losses.
The business lost NT$18 billion (US$589.9 million) last year, he said, apologizing to the company’s shareholders and the mall’s customers.
“The closing of the mall symbolizes the disillusion of a dream of mine,” the 72-year-old tycoon said with tears in his eyes.
After the closure, some of the mall’s 120 employees plan to retire, while the others would be reassigned to other Core Pacific Group businesses, Shen said.
The office complex that is to replace the mall would be beautiful and comfortable, he said.
When the mall opened in November 2001 it was said to be the biggest in the nation with 62,000 ping (204,959m2) of floor space — 12 stories above ground and eight below.
The mall began as a 24 hour, seven days a week operation, posting revenue of NT$8 billion in its first year.
However, over the years it lost customers due to its distance from the nearest MRT station and the growing popularity of Xinyi District (信義), H&B Business Group (住商不動產) head researcher Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said.
The group in December last year began to seek a buyer for the complex, which was priced at NT$38 billion, then later lowered to NT$34.2 billion.
The complex was finally sold in September to Core Pacific Group affiliate China Petrochemical Development Corp (中石化) for NT$37.2 billion.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS