Design Village sees 85% of shops leased, opened by June 2017

BUTTERWORTH (Nov 24): Design Village, the only outlet mall in the northern region, expects to see 85% of its shops leased and opened by June 2017, says its marketing company Savills Malaysia.

Completely developed, the mall has 150 shoplots available of which currently 50% are open for business.

Savills managing director Allan Soo said Design Village’s developer had previously made a commitment to the Penang state government that the mall will be opened by the end of this year, hence the decision to open it now, he said at a press briefing during the mall’s launch yesterday. Officiating at the launch was Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Design Village is sited on 25 acres (10.11ha) of land in Batu Kawan, renamed Bandar Cassia, and is a few minutes’ away from the second Penang bridge, Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge.

It has a net lettable area of 400,000 sq ft and RM250 million was invested in Design Village.

International brands in the outlet mall include GAP, BVO Best Value Outlet, Sacoor Brothers, Samsonite and many more. There are also food and beverage outlets such as Coffee Bean, Starbucks and Wendy’s.

At present, there are no luxury brands in the mall as most brands have been undergoing a rationalisation and consolidation exercise, but Soo believes they will sign on and open in Design Village in a year’s time.

Design Village is developed by PE Land (Penang) Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of PE Land Sdn Bhd. PE Land, the engineering, construction, retail and property development arm of Pan Sarawak Holdings Sdn Bhd, is also the developer of The Spring Shopping Centre in Kuching.

PE Land executive director Joanna Ling said Design Village’s design includes pockets of parks for people to stop, rest and continue shopping with ease.

Design Village general manager Tan Ai Leen said that to bring shoppers to the mall, a shuttle bus that will ply the road from Gurney Drive to Komtar will ferry shoppers two to three times a day. There will be familiarisation programmes targeted at tour guides and tour agents.

It will also be reaching out to surrounding companies in industrial zones, and have tie-ups with Penang Global Tourism, he said.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on Nov 24, 2016. Subscribe to The Edge Financial Daily here.