The retail mall, located in the heart of George Town in Magazine Road, is jointly developed by three property and retail heavyweight groups — Asian Retail Mall II Ltd (ARML II), Belleview Group and Lion Group.

ARML II is the Asian real estate for Pramerica, which is the real estate investment management subsidiary of Prudential Financial Inc.

Asiamalls Management (SEA) Pte Ltd employer’s representative and CEO Michael Leong said the mall would provide 400,000 sq ft of retail space with seven levels of zoned shopping with 280 shops.

He said the upmarket mall was modelled to target mainly the “young and chic” shoppers.

“Popular brandnames will take up 80% to 90% of the shops. We want to raise the standard of retail malls in Penang via 1st Avenue, as tenants would also include Singapore retailers and the mall has also been carefully modelled after other successful malls in Singapore,” he added.

The official launch of 1st Avenue and signing of its anchor tenant Parkson Departmental Store here yesterday were witnessed by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Also present were 1st Avenue Mall Sdn Bhd director Datuk Sonny Ho, Pramerica chief executive officer Victoria Shigehira Sharpe and Parkson Corporation Sdn Bhd chief operating officer Toh Peng Khoon.

Parkson is taking up 92,000 sq ft of retail space across four levels and the outlet will be Parkson’s 36th.

Meanwhile, Sharpe said the collective expertise of Pramerica, Lion Group and Belleview Group would bring a new wave of shopping experience to Penang.

“Malaysia’s sound economic fundamentals and strong growth capacity are evident from the Asian Public Real Estate Association’s recent REIT report which stated Malaysia’s market capitalisation of US$1.43 billion (RM4.89 billion), behind markets like Japan which leads, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand.

“We are encouraged by these statistics which point to a robust growth potential,” she added.

As of June 30, Pramerica Asia managed US$6.4 billion of gross assets throughout Asia via ARMF, managing shopping malls in Singapore, namely Tiong Bahru Plaza, Century Square, Hougang Mall, White Sands, Liang Court and Tampines 1.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, November 4, 2009.