De Centrum Mall Kajang: Do basic malls struggle for tenants?

Опубликовано: 14 Ноябрь 2024
на канале: EC

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We often hear when a high-end mall or luxury mall struggling to get foot traffic. People will brush it off to say, there is just few rich people like T20. Why don’t the developers build a basic mall that caters for needs only?

The De Centrum Mall comprises of four levels with a market place on the lower ground floor. This mall located in Kajang was completed in 2015. To give a general bearing, De Centrum is located about 10-minute drive from IOI City Mall Putrajaya which has 2.5 million square feet.

To be upfront, I don’t think folks from Petaling Jaya or KL city will travel to visit this mall in Kajang. However, before you tune out, in this video I will cover the basic facts and will talk about a totally different perspective from the other mall videos.

It is a basic mall to cater for everyday needs that serves the community. It is next to Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur (IUKL) has around 3,000 students, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN). UNITEN has around 5,000 students.

I visited at around 1pm to take a look at the foot traffic. Viewing the main entrance, it probably is more appropriate to describe it as an open space retail complex. There is a high ceiling of up to 3 storeys high but the main space is not airconditioned but it still feels cooling even in the afternoon.
As a side note, since the main entrance seems wide open, I couldn’t help but notice the seats were wire like seats. Usually this is to prevent people from sitting for too long or sleeping on it.
The retail complex is attached with a 29 storey De Centrum Residences which houses 320 units of freehold residential units.
Protasco’s 2023 annual report values the mall around RM32 million with a land area of close to 200,000 square feet. It was developed and is owned by Protasco Group Berhad. The mall has future minimum rentals for non-cancellable long-term leases around RM1.5 million per year. My best guess is the anchor tenant which is the supermarket and perhaps the Islamic primary school.
Ground floor has a large open space for events, which is currently occupied by general merchandise and clothes. There are about 3 eateries doing well which are the nasi kandar, mamak and Hainan chicken rice. Mr DIY is still operating with some customers.
On one part of the wing, we can see that access to the first floor is shuttered.
I have done a mall review of The Pinnacle Sri Petaling with 5,000 views. Damansara City Mall with 7,000 views. If you have been following my videos, please subscribe.
First floor
Vacancies are around 50% on the first floor. A printing shop is still operating. The signboard is a local café that is now no longer operating.
The 2nd floor is almost empty with the exception of a medical clinic operating.
KFC had closed down around 4 months ago according to employee in other retail outlets. Pizza Hut is also not operating. There is a letter attached that the landlord approving the tenant, in this case Pizza Hut to close the outlet in May. The condition was that Pizza Hut is to reopen for operations in June 2024. Today’s visit is in November and Pizza Hut has yet to reopen.
The only one unique experience that I probably can mention. There are around 3 middle eastern restaurants run by Yemeni’s and Syrians. I spoke to the Middle eastern restaurant staff. The restaurant caters to IUKL about 500 Middle East students. He also mentioned that stores have been vacant since he started working here 1 year ago.