Retailers Making Way For New Hong Kong Store

Once again, several retailers have accepted generous relocation offers from Apple, and will vacate their spaces to make room for a new Apple store inside the Festival Walk shopping center in Hong Kong. The future store will be the second for the city of 7 million residents, after the IFC Mall store opened last year. The new store will be located in crowded Kowloon, across the bay from the IFC Mall store on office-oriented Hong Kong Island. According to tipsters, three retailers on the LG1 level are moving to other spaces within the mall, which has 217 retailers, an ice skating rink and office spaces. The mall is also adjacent to the busy Kowloon Tong subway station and the City University of Hong Kong. Specifically, the adjacent HSBC, Agnes B. and Izzue store vacancies will create a wide space that will rival the IFC Mall store in width, and be substantially deeper. A nondescript construction barricade now covers the three empty spaces, and at least one of the retailers has already re-opened elsewhere in the mall. Apple has previously convinced other retailers to relocate, including recently at several malls where Apple wants to move an existing store to a larger space. Based on construction schedules, the store could open in early 2013.

A future Apple store will appear on the LG1 level of the mall, in the combined spaces of three previous retailers who have relocated elsewhere in the mall.

This photo shows the non-Apple construction barricade in front of the former Izzue store that will eventually form part of the huge Apple store at Festival Walk. The HSBC (to left) and Agnes B. stores (to right) will also close, and make up the remainder of the Apple store. photo by Paco Wong