Second auction to be held for unpopular Taipei mall

By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter





Core Pacific City Co (京華城), operator of the unprofitable Living Mall in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), has revived plans to seek buyers for the property at a second public auction next month, after failing to attract any offer in a first attempt in December last year, Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan said yesterday.

Owner Core Pacific Group (威京集團), which also owns civil engineering, construction, petrochemical, financial and entertainment businesses, has agreed to give winning bidders more flexibility in how they deal with the giant retail complex, the property consultancy said.

“Many expressed interest in the property, but failed to join the bidding for different reasons, and the group decided to give prospective buyers a second chance,” it said.

The group would sell the complex as a whole this time, rather than divide it into several lots that were supposed to lower the bidding threshold and shore up investment interest, the consultancy said.

Prospective buyers appear to prefer full ownership, it added.

Buyers would be allowed to talk to tenant Cinemark Theatres (喜滿客影城) and work out terms among themselves following the property transfer, rather than pay punitive fines to alter the contract, as originally stipulated, it said.

In addition, prospective buyers could choose to give up legal claims that the complex is allowed to expand its floor-to-area ratio from 560 percent to 678 percent, sparing them legal expenses linked to an ongoing lawsuit against the Taipei City Government, it said.

However, the group has no intention of lowering the asking price of NT$38 billion (US$1.23 billion), which analysts said was to blame for the failed auction in December.

The mall sits on 4,986 ping (16,483m2) of land and has 62,000 ping of floor space across 12 stories above ground and eight underground floors.

The group took out a syndicated loan of NT$12 billion two decades ago to finance construction of the L-shaped complex and the debt is due to mature this year.