VietNamNet Bridge – Developing the shops underground has become the choice of a lot of investors, who want the unfamiliar, original and cheap retail premises.

Nguyen Tien Hung, the owner of the restaurant in Vincom Megal Mall – Royal City, admitted that he was not sure if his business could run well when setting up the restaurant here. At that time, there was no underground amusement park or supermarket in Hanoi. Therefore, Hung decided to lease a small retail premises area to explore the situation.

Hung’s restaurant was inaugurated at the time when Vincom Megal Mall made its debut. The new space, unfamiliar and original to Hanoians, has helped the restaurant prosper.

Hung said he felt satisfactory with the decision on setting up the restaurant underground, partially because the rents here are much lower.

Besides, Vincom Megal Mall is a very big shopping center with a hypermarket covering an area of 12, 000 square meters, which gathers hundreds of fashion, jewelry, cosmetics, household, home appliance brands, Vietnamese and international.

An area of tens of thousands of square meters has been reserved for food shops and restaurants, large enough for 80 restaurants ready to serve the cuisines of the countries from all over the world.

Especially, Vincom Mega Mall attracts visitors with interesting amusement areas, including the Vinpearl Aquarium, a modern aquarium in Hanoi, 4,000 square meters and 300 precious species.

Following the noisy debut of Vincom Mega Mall, Ocean Retail, a subsidiary of Ocean Group, has officially inaugurated Ocean Mart Trung Hoa in the Trung Hoa -  Nhan Chinh new urban area and Ocean Mart Starbowl in Dong Da district. This is the second underground supermarket in Hanoi.

Kim Duck Ho, CEO of Ocean Retail, said Ocean Retail is ready to spend big money to expand the retail network which is a part of the Ocean Retail’s competitiveness in the market.

The media executive of Ocean Group admitted that it is less costly to hire retail premises underground, while tenants can negotiate to get favorable conditions.

The executive has revealed that Ocean is seeking more retail premises to expand its distribution network.

The “go underground” movement has been responded by the business community.

Tran Van Hai, an investor from HCM City said he has spent a month long wondering in Hanoi to look for suitable underground premises.

Hai plans to develop an underground complex of amusement park and food shop. “There are too many shops and restaurants at the surface already. Therefore, I would like to create an original space for my customers, mostly young customers,” he said.

“Underground premises have been hunted by businessmen. As investors can take full advantage of the area under the ground, they can lease at reasonable rents,” he explained.

Meanwhile, developing underground premises has become the profitable business that real estate developers now think of. They can take full advantage of the space between the big buildings, cut down the expenses on site clearance and save the money on the compensation for land. These are all the great advantages.

Kim Chi