KUALA LUMPUR: Capital Trend Asia Sdn Bhd (CTA) expects 2.5 million visitors a year to its first retail development, Amerin Mall, in Balakong, Selangor upon completion in 2016.

“[This amounts to] 6,849 visitors a day. We plan to build eight cinema halls, which will attract 50% of this estimation, and the balance visiting our anchor grocer, F&B and retails lots,” said K H Lim, its managing director.

“We will be operating the mall ourselves. However, we are also considering working with a mall operator if we find a good one.”

Besides the mall, CTA is also building Amerin Residences comprising two 19-storey residential towers with 304 units in each tower. The entire development has an estimated gross development value of RM380 million.

The RM80 million Amerin Mall will have three levels of retail space, a gross built-up of 410,700 sq ft and net lettable area of 155,600 sq ft.

The mall will have a tenant mix of F&B outlets (40%), retail shops (56%) and kiosks (4%). The retail shops have built-ups of between 566 sq ft and 7,037 sq ft.

Lim is looking at rental rates ranging from RM4.50 per sq ft (psf) for the ground floor to RM2.50 psf for the second floor.

Amerin Mall will be competing with two other malls in the vicinity: The Mines Shopping Mall and Aeon Cheras Selatan Store & Shopping Centre.

Among its outlets is the River Promenade, where visitors may dine and relax while enjoying the natural river view.

“[We hope our tenant mix will] ensure the mall is attractive to visitors,” adds Lim.

Other than Amerin Mall, the group is also expecting to run its two upcoming hotels in Jalan Rembia, Kuala Lumpur and Perling, Johor, which will start operations at end-2015 and second quarter of 2016, respectively.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 5, 2014.