Metro City Shanghai features ‘Globe’ centrepiece
Metro City Shanghai’s “Globe” was repurposed into a multimedia screen two years ago. The 50m crystalline LED globe-shaped screen is now a landmark at Metro City shopping mall located in Xuijiahui, Shanghai’s business district. Since then, it has been the site of many creative campaigns by international companies.
Last year, Japanese company Anessa collaborated with Pokémon to turn the globe at Metro City into a giant Poké Ball to promote a special line of Pokémon-themed sunscreens. Leading Japanese household goods specialty store Loft, which operates 131 branches in Japan, launched its first store in China, Loft at Metro City, two years ago.
Metro City Shanghai is a nine-storey mall with 430,560 sq ft of retail space, and linked directly to the underground subway station. Completed in 1998, the mall is 60% owned by Singapore-listed Metro Holdings. The mall is 98.3% leased as at end-March 2021.
Next door to Metro City is the 26-storey office block, Metro
Tower. With 640,000 sq ft of office space, the tower was completed in 1997, and Metro owns a 60% stake in the building too.
In fact, Metro has been in China since 1988, when it entered a joint venture in the development of a 35-storey office tower in Guangzhou, GIE Tower. It was completed in 1993 and is 100% owned by Metro today. In 2007, Metro took a stake in the development of Metro City Beijing, which was completed in 2007.
Other investments in China include The Atrium Mall, a commercial mall in Chengdu, where Metro has a 25% stake. The building has a net lettable area (NLA) of 271,102 sq ft, and a 40-year lease from 2007. Asset enhancement works were completed at the end of 2020, and the mall officially opened in December that year.
In Shanghai, Metro has a 30% stake in an office building located in New Jiangwan City, Yangpu District, called Bay Valley, Shanghai. The building has NLA of 632,202 sq ft, and is fully leased. Another investment property in Shanghai is Shanghai Plaza at Huai Hai Zhong Road in Huang Pu district.
The mall has 423,079 sq ft NLA and opened in September 2020 after asset enhancement works were completed. Metro’s stake in Shanghai Plaza is 35%.
“Metro has been quite entrepreneurial in China,” says Yip Hoong Mun, group CEO and executive director of Metro Holdings. “In Shanghai, the most significant mall is Metro City. We developed the mall, but we don’t operate a department store there. We are just the landlord, and the mall is doing very well.”