Sunway Malls and Theme Parks chief executive officer HC Chan (seventh from left)
PETALING JAYA: Sunway Malls will be placing emphasis on the northern region after the successful expansion exercise of the Sunway Carnival Mall in Seberang Perai, Penang.
In a statement, Sunway Malls said despite economic challenges caused by Covid-19, the Sunway Carnival Mall saw it double its retail space to one million square feet (sq ft) with 95% leased and opened with an 80% occupancy rate.
The RM500mil expansion saw a 60% increase in the number of shops to 350 shops from the 220 shops previously and an expanded parking facility with 3,200 parking bays.
Collectively, the exercise generated significant economic and social multiplier effects with an additional 2,000 new jobs created for the local community, the mall group said.
Sunway Malls chief executive officer H C Chan said Penang had one of the highest levels of urbanisation in the country at 91% with a population density of 1,500 persons per sq km.
“Its strong fundamentals of the highly urbanised, affluent and discerning market; and with the return to normalcy through the endemicity transition and international borders re-opening, this expansion is certainly timely,” said Chan.
Cumulatively, Sunway Mall’s current total retail space stands at 5.3 million sq ft of net lettable area.
Out of this, the central region occupies 70% of the mall group’s total retail space.
Both the northern and southern regions, meanwhile, occupy 19% and 11%, respectively.
With seven physical malls in its portfolio across Malaysia, the group has another two malls in the pipeline. The malls will be located on Penang island and Ipoh.
With future developments in the pipeline, Sunway Malls’ future retail space will increase by 52% to eight million sq ft of net lettable area.
On the other hand, the northern region will see it occupying 38% of the mall group’s total retail space in the future.
In conjunction with this, the mall group is expected to grow its assets to 12 physical malls in the next five years. — Bernama
