Kenneth Chan, Ding Feng Land: Explore the Value of Urban Spaces, Create A Gathering Place for the City Center

Recently subway connections of line 10 & line 1, located on the B1 floor of Ding Feng Land·Chongqing Robinsons Galleria (hereafter referred to as Chongqing Robinsons Galleria) opened successfully. The opening brings convenience to people’s travels and turns Chongqing Robinsons Galleria into a focus of the Jiefangbei area. The grand opening of the Chongqing Robinsons Galleria will be held this coming December 2023. As Philippines’JG Summit’s first commercial project in Chongqing, China, Chongqing Robinsons Galleria shows an array of features for its patrons to enjoy, and Ding Feng Land’s Country GM discussed how this will upgrade the region.  With these questions, we interviewed Kenneth Chan, the Country Business Unit General Manager of Ding Feng Land in China. He presented us with the development prospect and value of the commercial project.

Kenneth Chan, the Country Business Unit General Manager

Write Regional Business Imprints

The Chongqing people have a consensus that the Yuzhong district is a photographic plate for the old Chongqing and a living room for the new city. With the city continued upgrade, Yuzhong district also continues to level up its major destination areas. Along with this development is Chongqing Robinsons Galleria, an urban complex, at Xinglong Street, Qixingang, Yuzhong District. The galleria with an area of about 280,000 square meters soft opened to its patrons early this year. The development is composed of a mall and the towering four ultra-high-rise residential buildings overlooking Yuzhong Peninsula, Yangtze River, and Jialing River. The buildings now have 1,700 residences. The mall is about 65,000 square meters with 5 floors and about 1,300 parking spaces. It integrates the function of entertainment, leisure, shopping, food, and beverage. We asked what ignite their interest to open this commercia complex.

Robinsons Galleria

“Chongqing Robinsons Galleria located in the Yuzhong district --the mother town of Chongqing with rich cultural and historical heritage. It is adjacent to the Jiefangbei business circle, key schools, top three hospitals, and tourist attractions. While the district is accelerating to create an international consumer center, a high-quality urban complex appeared, hoping to energize the region and grow together with the city." Kenneth Chan said.

Mall

As Ding Feng Land’s first commercial project in Chongqing, during the design period, the designer endowed the galleria with two objectives. One is by the commercial project to publicize the brand of Robinsons in southwestern China. The other is through participating in the city’s renewal to write its own business imprints. 

4A Entrance of line 10 & line 1 on the B1 floor of Chongqing Robinsons Galleria 

The opening of subway connections of line 10 & line 1 makes the project more attractive, and connect the galleria and the surrounding 300,000 consumer groups and travelers. When line 18 opens in 2025, subway transportation will bring in another 100 thousand consumers per day to Chongqing Robinsons Galleria making it the only TOD project integrated with 3 subway lines in the Yuzhong district. “Traffic affects people's daily lives. In recent years, Chongqing has implemented a plan of linking urban rail transits, by developing TOD projects to integrate malls and rail stations and improve the quality of the urban economy. The seamless connections of the subways make our mall become a travel hub for the surrounding residents, adding value to our project. It also enhances tenants’ confidence. The links among citizens, shopping malls, and tenants will promote our project to get better and faster development” Kenneth Chan said.

Develop in Parallel with Life

Reinvent Yourself in Innovation

From a popular tourist destination to a welcomed living city, like its summer weather, Chongqing also never lacks the heat of discussion. But this also means that the demands of its consumers are constantly changing, and a commercial community with long-term service and self-upgrading is more precious.

CHAGEE (tea drink)

“The original intention of DF Land to start a business in Chongqing was to provide the citizens with long-term and quality services. To reach this goal, we need to keep constantly explore and improve". Kenneth Chan said explorations are to collect people’s consumption and living habits, and diversified needs. He hopes that through these, the project will be elevated and ultimately achieve self-innovation. "We aim at letting our consumers feel that spending time at our malls is a habit and lifestyle. Malls should not only be places for shopping but also be gathering places for people to enjoy lives and make friends."

Great Super Supermarket

As of today, the leasing rate of the mall reaches 70%. Its anchor shops include Great Super Supermarket, UZONE Fitness, and Heng Dian Cinema have started operation. Food and beverage brands, Starbucks, KFC, CHAGEE (tea drink), De Xiang Yuan (roast duck restaurant), Qiao Ba Yu (Sichuan style restaurant), and Ben Niu Chang (hot pot restaurant) have joined the mall. Retail brands, HUAWEI, Yishion, Semir, JOUIN (FMCG), City BOBO (children’s apparel), and DR.KONG (children’s shoes) also have signed contracts with the leasing team.

Chongqing Robinsons Galleria will also promote Philippines and China co-creation brands, and develop cultural experiences, brand styles, and space creativities; will hold festivals, foods, and film activities with South Asian cultural characteristics. Chongqing Robinsons Galleria also strives to link the other three projects in Shanghai, Xiamen, and Taicang to create a unique shopping center experience. "We recruit high-quality brands around fashion, character, socialization, and service. We hope our one-stop services can meet consumers' need in clothing, food, housing, travel, and entertainment, creating a life-gathering place in the city center for everyone.

UZONE Fitness

Growth alone with The City.

Create A Gathering Place for The City Center

A brilliant commercial center could not exist without a forward-looking and experienced enterprise. Kenneth Chan introduced, DF Land’s parent company--JG Summit Holdings, Inc. is one of Asia's highly diversified conglomerates and one of the largest comprehensive corporations listed in the Philippines. Its business spreads all over the Asias region, involving Banking (Robinsons Bank), petroleum, telecommunications, power companies, the Philippines' leading budget airlines (Cebu Pacific Airlines), branded food production (URC), etc. It also has stakes in overseas real estate companies Singapore Land and United Industrial Corporation (UIC). Ding Feng’s goal is to be a world-class real estate enterprise in design, development, and sales. Since its first project started in 1993, Ding Feng has devoted itself to developing apartments, commercial complexes, and high-end office buildings. It has successively established its name in Shanghai, Xiamen, Chengdu, Taicang, Chongqing, and other cities and regions, developing areas of more than 1.8 million square meters.  

In 2007,Ding Feng landed in Chongqing. In 2023, holding the vision of Create A Gathering Place for the City Center, Ding Feng has adhered to refreshing the region, giving empathic services to customers, and exploring the value of the urban space. Along with the business upgrade of the Yuzhong district, through innovation and integration, Ding Feng will grow together with consumers and brands, and form a better future with the Chongqing people.

Robinsons Galleria

Apart from Chongqing Robinsons Galleria, Ding Feng is developing a project in Central Park, Yubei district. "The Central Park project is closely connected to Lujiagou Station of subway line 5. It only takes one minute to reach home from the station. On the foundation of this nature’s gift, our ideal planning, and advanced facilities, Ding Feng is developing a 90 Mu high-end residential community ". Kenneth Chan also expressed that Ding Feng will continue to cultivate the Chongqing market, dig into Chongqing people-loved projects, and make achievements in quality and services. Ding Feng hopes to be a major player, recognized, and loved enterprise by the Chongqing people.