Mall set for soft opening

Staff reporter

Hopewell Mall in Wan Chai will have a soft opening next month with an occupancy rate of over 90 percent.

Located at 183 Queen's Road East, the mall has introduced a number of flagship stores, including Japanese furniture and home-furnishing retailer Nitori with a store area of 50,000 square feet, according to developer Hopewell Holdings.

The firm noted that the mall and Hopewell Hotel above the mall have a total area of over 1 million sq ft. It added that upon completion of the Hopewell Mall extension, the entire Hopewell cluster will have a retail area of over 780,000 sq ft, along with a 60,000-square-foot green park.

This came as retail sales in the city dropped for a sixth consecutive month in August by 10.1 percent from a year ago, missing market expectations, as changing consumption patterns, a stronger Hong Kong dollar, and increased outbound travel continued to weigh on spending.

Sales in August fell to HK$29.2 billion, according to provisional figures from the Census and Statistics Department. That compared with a projection of a 9 percent dip and a revised 11.7 percent decline in July.

In terms of volume, retail sales shrank 11.8 percent compared with a year earlier.

For the first eight months, the value of retail sales decreased by 7.7 percent from the previous year while volume was down 9.3 percent.

A government spokesman said the retail sector still faces challenges in the near term while a lower Hong Kong dollar following US interest rate cuts would provide some support.

The Hong Kong Retail Management Association expects a decline between high single-digit and low double-digits in retail sales for the whole year.