DEVELOPERS said yesterday that Borey Thmey Shopping Mall would be Battambang’s first, after the opening of Battambang Shopping Centre was pushed back a year.

The US$10 million four-storey Borey Thmey mall in Svay Por Commune will contain 600 units, its manager of sales administration Neang Nead Thanith said.

“We’re the first shopping mall in Battambang city, and we will allow our tenants to prepare their shops in November.

“We plan to open for business early next year,” she said.

Meanwhile, Phou Puy, the owner of 1,500-store Battambang Shopping Centre, said yesterday that his project would not be completed by the end of 2010, as it was claimed in April.

He revised the target for completion to the beginning of 2011.

“We are rushing to complete the project. Now, we’re doing only interior design,” he said.

The Post has visited the project site twice in the past month, and no work or construction equipment was in evidence on either occasion. Only the shell of the Battambang Shopping Centre was complete.

Borey Thmey Shopping Mall is owned by Lim Chhiv Ho, managing director of Attwood Import-Export.

It has sold about 80 percent of its store locations, Neang Nead Thanith said. “Customers will come here because it will be the first one in Battambang, and it is in a good location,” she said.

“Hopefully we can attract more shops to our mall next year, but realistically we don’t hope to sell out this year.”

Lao Tip Seiha, construction department head for the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, said the ministry had approved Borey Thmey’s licence in 2008.

“The ministry will be proud to see the first new shopping mall in Battambang. We really do support them,” he said. “Battambang is a city with a lot of potential.”

The new mall will create local jobs and boost the local economy, he said.