CapitaMalls Asia awarded S$128.4m Wuhan, China mall site

Six-storey mall will be CMA's fourth in Wuhan.

In a disclosure to the Singapore Exchange, CapitaMalls Asia Limited announced that it has been awarded a prime site for a shopping mall in Wuhan, China. The site, measuring about 70,400 sq m, was awarded at a price of RMB660.0 million (about S$128.4 million / HK$813.4 million). Based on total gross floor area (GFA), excluding car park, the land cost is about RMB2,700 (S$525 / HK$3,328) per sq m.

Subject to planning approval, CapitaMalls Asia will develop the site into a six-storey shopping mall with a total GFA, excluding car park, of about 160,000 sq m and 2,100 car park spaces.

Targeted to open in 2015, the mall will be positioned as a one-stop shopping destination catering to the growing middle-income population.

CapitaMalls Asia’s proposed mall will have the potential to include two office towers with total GFA, excluding car park, of up to 80,000 sq m. The entire development will have a total GFA, excluding car park, of up to about 240,000 sq m. On a completed basis, the total development cost is expected to be about RMB2,800.0 million (S$544.5 million / HK$3,450.8 million).

Mr Lim Beng Chee, CEO of CapitaMalls Asia, said, “We are pleased to have won this prime site in Wuhan. A major transport and commercial hub in Central China, Wuhan is a high-growth city with strong economic fundamentals. Its GDP growth averaged 14.3% per annum from 2007 to 2011, higher than the average 10.4% per annum for Beijing and Shanghai. Its per capita urban disposable income also rose 14.1% while retail sales grew 18.0% in 2011 – slightly higher than the national average of 17.1%. These trends augur well for the outlook of Wuhan’s retail sector.”

“There is currently a lack of good shopping malls in the Gutian area, and our new mall will meet the under-served retail needs and aspirations of the residents here. With this new site, we now have four shopping malls in Wuhan. The other three malls are CapitaMall Wusheng and CapitaMall Minzhongleyuan in the Hankou area, which are already operational, as well as CapitaMall 1818 currently under development in the Wuchang area. This acquisition will entrench our presence in Wuhan, and we will be able to leverage on our established operations to develop the new mall. This acquisition is also in line with our strategy to expand our footprint in China and strengthen our presence in the cities and regions we are already in.”  

The site is located in Qiaokou District at the junction of two major roads, namely Jiefang Avenue – one of the busiest arterial roads in Wuhan’s Hankou area – and Gutian Second Road. It is a 10-minute train ride or 8 km from the city centre, and is connected to the Gutian Second Road metro station on the Metro Line 1.

Accessibility to the site will be further enhanced in 2015 when the sixth Jianghan bridge spanning the Han River is completed to link Hankou and Hanyang, which have a combined population of about 3 million people. Hankou and Hanyang, together with Wuchang, form the three main areas of Wuhan.

Qiaokou District is one of the seven central districts of Wuhan. It is the second most densely populated district with close to 18,000 people per sq km – about 2.5 times the average population density of some 7,000 people per sq km in Singapore. The site serves a population catchment of about 500,000 people within a 5-km radius.

Including this new development, CapitaMalls Asia now has 60 shopping malls in 36 cities in China, of which 49 are operational and the remaining 11 are under development.