Furi Times Square, developed with $10 million of investment in response to the flow of foreign tourists and investment into the province, held a soft opening on Monday.
Construction on Sihanoukville’s first shopping mall – a joint venture between local firm Furi Real Estate and a Chinese investor – began in September last year.
Set on 1ha of land, Furi Times Square has a total space of 15,000sqm spread across five floors.
Furi Real Estate sales manager Lim Sokha Davin told The Post on Tuesday that in the pilot phase, only the first and second floors would be open for entertainment, with the official opening ceremony scheduled soon.
Furi Times Square will have many international brands as tenants, including KFC, Starbucks, Levi’s, Nike and G-Shock.
“[So far] during the launch, I have seen a lot of local and foreign customers coming into Furi Times Square,” Sokha Davin said.
She said the shopping space occupancy rate so far stood at around 80 per cent. Rental fees have not been disclosed.
Furi Times Square’s ground floor will be used for a supermarket, the first floor for food and beverages, and the second for clothing stores.
The third floor has been allocated for a large food store, the fourth for cinemas and entertainment, while the fifth floor is to house a skybar.
With Preah Sihanouk province having seen a steady increase in tourist arrivals, Sokha Davin said the demand for supermarkets is increasing.
“The government’s policy to develop Preah Sihanouk province will increase its population and the number of tourists, so the demand for business centres will also increase in the future,” she said.
Last year, the province welcomed some two million tourists.
Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Kouch Chamroeun previously told The Post that there were 922 commercial and service industry establishments in the province as of the end of June.
Chamroeun said the construction sector has seen remarkable growth. Between 2007 and July this year, 819 projects had been approved in the province, of which 218 were between five and 42 storeys tall.
According to a report by the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, the Cambodian construction sector’s capital investment in 2019 was around $9 billion.
This is an increase of 78 per cent compared with 2018, with most of the growth resulting from construction in Preah Sihanouk province.
