By: Property Area Asia Staff
Phnom Penh: When you walk into The Bridge Mall, you would feel frightening. If you fear ghosts, you may be stunned by the tranquility of three stories high The Bridge Mall, which is located under the building of a 45-story “The Bridge” condo.
The three-story shopping mall is all closed except for the front store, which is rented and operated by most Chinese people, and on the west side is a cafe that has opened to this day.
The staff of Huawei Mobile Phone Shop, which is the only store that opened, told last week that the mall is unactive except for the front, and all the booths inside were closed a long time ago.
“Even the elevator has been closed for a long time and no one dares to go up because it is so dark,” she said, pointing to the elevator escort.
SOHO Residential and Commercial Building (Office Plus Condo) is a joint venture between World Bridge Land Group and Oxley Holding, a Singapore-based company with an investment of approximately US $ 300 million.
The supply of supermarkets in Phnom Penh has increased to about 800,000 square meters. This increase has increased competition as a result, some local standard supermarkets have closed, such as Savanna Mall, Paragon Mall, and City Mall partially closed while some markets have closed and are facing closure.
At the same time, the mall in The Bridge does not seem to have studied the clear standards and does not meet the needs of tastes and leisure standards enough to meet international standards.
Turning to the skyscraper project, which was delayed by more than a year, the 55-story The Peak project, which cost $ 550 million and was also invested by construction company The Bridge, is also resolving compensation issues for condo buyers, supermarket booths owners and office buyers in this project as well.
The Capital, Singapore’s international supermarket management company, withdrew from the project and was replaced by the family-run Blue Bell Group.
An international supermarket expert, who called himself Sunny, said that The Peak’s shopping malls may be difficult to succeed because of insufficient parking and the narrow front. The second reason is that the market stalls are sold to customers, which is difficult for the company to manage the mall because buyers want to be independent in setting up their booths.
Another new challenge for The Peak is that EAON Mall Group has been investing about $ 60 million to upgrade and expand its retail space at the nearby AEON Mall1.
Due to disputes with the construction company, The Peak project has been delayed for about two years, so far construction has been slow and may take longer, with the pace of preparation likely to be completed by the end of this year, if possible, postponed until 2023.
Neak Oknha Sea Rithy, CEO of World Bridge Land Group, said last year that The Peak project would be completed as planned, but as a result, did not go as planned.
Talking to the founder and CEO of Property Area Asia, Neak Oknha said that he did not need to speak to the local press because it would “lower his standards”.
“The international press is welcomed because it enhances his reputation but talking to local journalists is dragging down his image,” he said.
An Sothida, CEO of PropNex Cambodia, once said that investing in supermarkets pays off quickly, but investors need to modernize every three to five years to keep them up-to-date and attractive.
“However, nowadays the size of the supermarket has already exceeded the demand, which makes the size of the supply beyond what the market can absorb,” she said.
A veteran real estate expert, who asked not to be named, said that most supermarkets in Cambodia are substandard and that competition is increasing, so small or medium-sized supermarkets should focus on selling their exclusive products like clothes or electronics.
