Second Lotte shopping center to open in city soon
By Quoc Hung - The Saigon Times Daily
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| Lotte Mart trademark posted up outside of The EverRich apartment building at the corner of Ba Thang Hai - Le Dai Hanh Streets in District 11 - Photo: Quoc Hung |
HCMC - South Korea’s leading department store operator Lotte Shopping will open on a trial basis a new shopping center next week in HCMC, bringing to second the number of its outlets in the city.
Lotte Vietnam Shopping Co., a unit of Lotte Shopping, will operate the new store on the first five floors of The EverRich apartment building at the corner of Ba Thang Hai - Le Dai Hanh streets in District 11, after the opening of the first in Saigon South new 
urban area in District 7 in late 2008.
Hong Pyong Gyu, general director of Lotte Vietnam Shopping Co., confirmed this with the Daily on Wednesday, stressing “We make the trial opening for visitors on the occasion of the upcoming Lunar New Year, as well as check the mall’s equipments and help train our staff before the official inauguration.”
The HCMC authorities on Tuesday gave approval in principle for Lotte Vietnam Shopping Co. to develop the new mall at The EverRich apartment building. However, it must wait for the final decision from other related ministries.
Hong Pyong Gyu expected that his company would obtain an investment certificate for opening the new shopping center in the next two or three weeks to officially open the shopping center soon.
He said that his company had bought the commercial area of the EverRich apartment building from Phat Dat Property Development Joint Stock Co., owner of the building.
The five-floor Lotte Shopping center in District 11 is a US$100-million venture between Lotte Shopping and Vietnam’s Minh Van Company. The new shopping center will display some 50,000 items, more than 90% of them produced in Vietnam, besides thousands of other items imported from South Korea.
The shopping center also houses other facilities such as a bookstore, a home appliance center, restaurants, a cultural center, bowling and billiards facilities, a children game area, and a fast food center. As many as 60 local and foreign companies have leased more than 10,000 square meters of space in the center.
The company has not revealed a time to officially open the new store, but the Daily’s observation at the site shows that many companies who lease space in the center are busy preparing their shops to open for the upcoming sales season of the Lunar New Year.
The first Lotte Mart, the biggest shopping center in Vietnam, costs US$75 million and covers 33,400 square meters in Saigon South area. The three-floor Lotte Mart South Saigon includes a 15,800-square-meter supermarket, and other amenities such as a cinema theater, a bookstore, a home appliance center, restaurants, and others.
Lotte plans to set up about 30 department stores and supermarkets within 10 years in HCMC, Hanoi, Danang, Can Tho, Haiphong and Hue, at a total cost of some US$5 billion. They will include 15 department stores and supermarkets in HCMC and the city’s neighboring provinces in the near future.
Under Vietnam’s WTO commitments, the retail market will be opened up to international competition in almost all aspects after November 2010. But after the opening of their first store in Vietnam, international retailers must seek permission for every additional outlet.
Last April, an official of the HCMC Department of Planning and Investment said that the city government had received Lotte Vietnam’s proposal for the second store at The EverRich building but it took time for consideration.
And now the city gave approval in principle for Lotte Vietnam Shopping Co. to run the new mall.