Four Seasons Shopping Mall is set to attract second-tier players
Finance Street, a new real-estate development in Beijing aimed at global banks and financial companies, is hoping to attract a second wave of small to mid-sized international retailers with a new shopping mall of 72,000 square metres.
The Four Seasons Shopping Mall is owned by Finance Street Holding, a company listed in Shenzhen, and is being marketed by Jones Lang LaSalle to European, United States and Asian retailers.
While established companies such as McDonald's, KFC and Wal-Mart already have well-developed operations in China, second-tier players such as Gap, Benetton and Mango are just starting to look at selling to Chinese consumers, who spend more than 175 billion yuan a year on retail goods.
'Where the bigger retailers had the financial clout to muscle into the market, we're now seeing smaller companies - some family-owned - looking to enter,' said David Hand, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle in Beijing.
Forces propelling retailers into the market are the need for growth globally, the deregulation of China's retail market, scheduled to be completed by next year, China's increasingly wealthy consumers and improving laws for leaseholders.
Following the arrival of the giant warehouse stores, chain stores will probably dominate the second wave of retailers.
