HONG KONG - Lan Kwai Fong Holdings Ltd, developer of Hong Kong's iconic stretch of bars and restaurants, will expand in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, to tap growing domestic consumption.
As many as 70 bars and restaurants will be opened in a 148,000-square-meter shopping mall in the southern Chinese city later this year, Lan Kwai Fong Chairman Allan Zeman said, without giving an investment amount.
The "Mall of the World" project will be a joint venture with the government and have 400 shops.
Tea houses and hot-pot restaurants were opened for the company's Chengdu expansion to cater to Chinese tastes and a similar plan will be adopted for Guangzhou, he said.
"If you want to do well in China, you have to fit in with the culture," said Zeman, who is studying a third expansion in Hangzhou in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
"Consumer spending is huge in China, it's absolutely amazing," Zeman said.
Retail sales in China grew an average of 18.4 percent in the first 11 months last year.
Retailers, including LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA and Salvatore Ferragamo SpA, are seeing rising sales in China and some are planning expansions in the world's fastest-growing major economy.
Lan Kwai Fong in Hong Kong's central business district contains more than 100 restaurants and bars. A two-year redevelopment plan of the stretch, which includes building a 28-story block designed with terraces on every floor for smokers, who are banned from lighting up indoors, is expected to be completed by 2013, Zeman said.
Bloomberg News
