has the advantage of being close to the subway exit. Xidan Cultural Plaza, which was once the portal commercial project of the bustling Xidan Commercial District, finally started remodeling after more than two years of silence. However, this project, which once attracted young people to gather with fashionable shops and various snacks, will no longer be introduced into the catering industry. Regarding future development prospects, Guo Zengli, director of the Development Committee of China Shopping Center, believes that considering the maximization of land use value, the underground commercial street should not be positioned as a simple commercial business entity, but a social service entity.
01
project finally started
The reporter visited Xidan and saw that a fence was set up around Xidan Cultural Plaza, which had been silent for two years. From the inside of the overpass, it can be seen that the construction inside has begun. The reporter saw at the project entrance that the general contracting project was constructed by the Beijing Branch of China Construction Second Bureau. According to the plan, after the completion of the Xidan Cultural Plaza project, it will become the only large-scale green cultural square on Chang'an Street and a diversified commercial area integrating shopping, health, entertainment and leisure. A "duplex" green space will be built in the northeast of the square to allow the second-story platform to achieve greening.
Once Xidan Cultural Plaza was mainly based on the commercial block "77th Street" and is located underground in Xidan Cultural Plaza. To this day, there is a closure announcement of on February 31, 2015, posted at the entrance, which was released by China Resources Land (Beijing) Co., Ltd., owner of Xidan Cultural Plaza.
The 77th Street Shopping Center in Xidan Cultural Plaza in Beijing is China Resources Land’s first commercial real estate project. Before the shutdown, the project had just experienced the transformation from a small commodity distribution center to a fashion shopping center. As early as 2012, 77 Street received rectification documents from the Beijing Fire Department. When the rectification measures were taken, the country introduced more stringent fire safety measures and regulations, so Xidan Cultural Plaza 77 Street Shopping Center had to suspend business. A commercial real estate developer told reporters that because underground development has special attributes, on the one hand, the cost of construction is high, and because the project itself does not have land property rights, when developing and operating, the standardization of merchants, operators, etc. in terms of operating rights must also attract the attention of relevant parties.
02
will not have a catering format
The reporter learned that the Xidan Cultural Plaza will have no catering format after this renovation. At that time, "77 Street" was an underground commercial project based on young trends, mainly focusing on trendy clothing, accessories, and street snacks, and most of the consumer groups were young. At that time, Xidan Cultural Plaza was a 4-story underground commercial floor, with 1 to 2 underground commercial floors for retail purposes, and the rest of the underground floors were parking lots. Four-story underground commerce was rare at that time, so it was quite popular among young people. Xidan Cultural Plaza has cooperated with Xidan Shopping Center, Zhongyou Department Store and other companies.
Lai Yang, a special expert of the Beijing Business Research Institute and executive vice president of the Beijing Business Economics Society, said that in the new construction and planning process, business formats should be reasonably allocated according to the project situation. Xidan Cultural Plaza has no planning for catering formats, which may be due to the limitations of underground commerce in fire protection. Regarding whether not setting up a catering business will be detrimental to customer flow, Lai Yang also believes that consumers' demand for shopping and eating is not as strong as before, and they are more likely to gather with friends and family in their spare time. At the same time, Xidan Cultural Plaza is located at the entrance of Xidan Metro and is the gateway to the prosperous Xidan commercial area. It has natural advantages in customer flow. As long as the business combination and brand introduction are distinctive, it will have a certain influence on the development of the region in the future.
Guo Zengli told reporters that in the past few years, underground commercial development was in full swing nationwide, with many large-scale underground commercial streets appearing, and now there is a clear trend of slowing down and cooling down. In Guo Zengli's view, one of the reasons for the cooling of underground business is that many projects are operated by the sale of operating rights and have not obtained property rights. In the future, many legacy problems will arise due to the lack of property rights. It just so happens that the above-ground business is concentrated on the market, so the advantages of underground business are not so obvious.
03
Underground commercial warmth and cold
Today's Xidan business district is far from its positioning 10 years ago. Beijing has developed many large business districts, and the competition is very fierce. Xidan has long lost its leading advantage. If the positioning of this underground commercial project lacks novelty and only layout department stores, commercial centers, etc., it may be difficult to survive. At the same time, the operation of underground commercial is more difficult than that of the above ground, and there are more risks in investing in large shopping malls.
Guo Zengli believes that one factor restricting the development of underground business at present is that the intensive development of land is not done well, and the other factor is that there is a deviation in brand owners' understanding of underground business and their understanding of mature markets. This means that in terms of future positioning, underground business developers must be different from the previous business model that emphasized retail. In his opinion, the past underground commercial streets were all composed of small retail stores, which had no characteristics or differentiation compared with above-ground commercials. "We must not stick to commodity retail, jump to retail, give full play to our underground advantages, and develop towards social and cultural services such as sports, fitness, leisure, and entertainment." Guo Zengli believes that when developing underground commercial, considering the maximization of land use value, it should not be positioned as a simple business business body, but a social service body.
Duan Zhenyu, general manager of the Marketing Center of Beijing Zhonghuan Jiaye Investment Co., Ltd., believes that underground commercial streets must take the path of differentiated operations, mainly including four aspects: industrial characteristics, commercial characteristics, cultural characteristics, and local characteristics. They must be unique in all aspects such as early construction, decoration, business forms, commodity categories and post-management, and must also have their own professional operation and management team to ensure the later operation of underground commercial.
Source: Beijing Business Daily
Beijing Business Daily reporter: Wang Xiaoran Liu Zhuolan
