SM City Square, Xiamen, China
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/SHOESTRING AT WTS WIKIVOYAGE

SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SMPH) confirmed on Tuesday that it is opening its new mall in Tianjin, China. This will be the seventh mall of the retail giant located at the second largest economy of the world.

Here are three fast facts about SMPH’s new mall in China.
 

1. SM Tianjin is set for its soft opening in Dec. 17.
SM Prime President Jeffrey C. Lim said that the SM Tianjin is part of the continued expansion opportunities. Lim said that it continued to pursue its expansion plans in China despite the slow phase of its economic growth.

“We’re going to look at properties, as announced before, in the Fujian area. So, we will focus on the Fujian province,” Business World reported Lim, as saying.

2. SM Tianjin is one of the largest malls in the world. It has a gross floor area (GFA) of 540,000 square meters.
The large mall is located at the Tianjin Free Trade Zone. It is also tagged as the largest one-stop mall in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.

SM Tianjin also has an Olympic-size ice-skating rink and unique science discovery center. It will also house the largest IMAX screen, measuring up to eight-story. SM Tianjin also has a concert hall that can accommodate up to 900 people.

The construction of the mall started in 2012. Lim said that around 150,000 square meters of GFA within two buildings will be open to the public by Dec. 17.

3. SM Tianjin is 60 percent leased out. Lim said that the new mall will open certain areas such as the cinema and the supermarket.
China Daily reported back in March that Yonghui Supermarket, Dadi Cinema and Acasia Food are among the first stores to open at SM Tianjin. These stores signed the contract with Steven Tan, vice operation officer of SM City Tianjin.

Other SM malls in China are located in Xiamen, Jinjiang, Chengdu, Suzhou City, Chongqing and Shandong. In the Philippines, SMPH has 58 existing shopping centers across the country.

What do you think of SM Tianjin as SM’s seventh mall in China? Let us know in the comments section below.