Bringing the city's cultural creative artists out of their own places and gathering them in one place is the main aim for Window Lei, the boss of Village Ltd. who is planning to set up the city's first cultural creative focused mall on Rua do Campo. Speaking to Business Daily, the businessman believes local cultural creative operations need to be industrialized for better development, and predicts the city's economic downturn will bring opportunities as well as risks.
Having established a few incubator-like platforms for the city's cultural creative industry in old industrial buildings, why did you decide to bring this new one to a commercial building and to operate it in a mall style this time?
We wanted to bring the whole thing to the next level. Location is very important. This time, we chose this commercial building as it is located in the downtown area of the city, where a decent flow of customers can be guaranteed. We are also bringing the scale of the project to another level. We are not talking about a project occupying some 1,000 square metres anymore, but some 40,000 to 50,000 square metres. On the other hand, in terms of hardware, the problems of water leakage and mice are often seen in industrial buildings – which will not happen in this building. Hence, we can provide a very comfortable environment for our tenants to run their operations as well as for customers shopping here. The mall, which provides some 100 shops and studios, also offers opportunities to our tenants to get to know each other and to cooperate with each other.
When do you expect this project will be officially operational?
We hope to officially launch the project around this July or August. We will gradually put the first and the second floors into operation. But a promotional campaign will only be launched when the whole project is ready. After all, we are still looking for tenants. We don't have any idea how the whole thing will turn out in the end. Yet, we hope there will be more sparks for this project as more tenants and partners joining.
How many tenants do you expect to have when the project starts operations?
We expect that the number will surpass a half the available shops.
Do you see the concept for your mall as being similar to Taiwan's Eslite Mall?
I think such concepts are all around the world. I would say our project is similar to the concept of Eslite Mall. But of course, we hope we are able to build our own characteristics and features.
What is your cooperation model with the tenants?
Our role is more like a pioneer for the industry, to gather different kinds of businesses. We will provide professional advisers to businesses that are joining us. After all, our tenants do different kinds of businesses and have different experiences in doing business. But I think our company is a very good example to show them what the journey is like. We've taken a very huge risk by expanding our business from industrial buildings to this commercial building – in which our investment jumped from some MOP200,000 to the current MOP10 million. We will provide the support of our network and other hardware to our tenants. We also provide consultancy services for them to understand more about our project.
Why do you think the Broadway Centre Building is suitable for a cultural creative mall?
I've actually checked out nearly all the commercial buildings in Macau, plus industrial buildings. We eventually chose the Broadway Centre Building due to the fact that it is in an appropriate location for us to start something new – we have a bookstore and a stationery store downstairs; it is in the city's major shopping area, and at the end of a shopping route where people may come directly from Senado Square, then to Rua do Campo and visit our mall at the end.
The number of incubator-like platforms for the cultural creative industry is growing. Your mall will provide some 100 shops and studios, but do we really have that many cultural creative people in the territory to meet the supply?
One of our aims is to industrialize the city's cultural creative operations, and vice versa – to inject cultural creative elements into different products. We focus on making cultural creative products to be launched and sold on the market, in terms of branding, packaging and marketing. I can tell you the number of people engaging in the cultural creative field is not low at all, but they all hide in their own places. Hence, we want to get them out of their places and to help them enhance their operations. Macau has many traditional products but we need to put some cultural creative elements in them.
Does that mean commercializing the city's cultural-creative products?
It's not fully about commercialization. After all, there are certain conflicts between art and commerce. Nevertheless, we need to note that artists need to survive in the market as well. So we need to think how we can help them to survive – part of which is to turn their creations into goods. Many artists do not just give up creating things when those things cannot earn money. But we need to help them to earn a basic living. The role of our company is like a combination of a businessman and an artist – to help artists to balance the two sides.
How do you plan to attract people to visit your mall when the mall business is not as popular as it was a few years ago in Macau?
We need to stick to our principles for cultural creative [elements]. Some people may promote their products by saying they are cultural creative products even though they lack these elements. We need to persist in our principle – which is the theme of our mall. Macau's mall businesses are going down due to the worldwide change in consumption patterns moving to online shopping. Hence, in order to attract more customers, we need to stick to our principle, to tell our customers that you can't buy our products anywhere else but here. We need to build the principle telling customers they must come here. Moreover, we will also hold different crossover events, such as music performances, fashion shows or art exhibitions etc. With these events, we believe we can attract a certain number of customers. This is our strategy – offering new things to attract people.
What do you think about the government's policies for the cultural creative industry such as the Cultural Creative Industries Fund that is designated to this sector?
In fact, out project is also supported by [the second batch of subsidies of] the Fund. In my opinion, the government is not giving out its money for us to set up our project. The money it gives is aiding us to build our projects. I think the government is working on [helping the industry] at the moment. Frankly, if not for their help, we would not have had the courage to take such a big leap for our business. However, our investment is now low.
Can you disclose how much you received in government subsidies?
The government's financial aid accounts for one fifth of our total investment. Our project is an incubator platform plus a project to streamline the industry. In addition to providing venues for local cultural creative people, we offer them other services, such as consultancy as well.
At present, the government's support of the industry is still limited to monetary aid. What more could the government do to support the industry?
In my opinion, the Cultural Creative Industries Fund, or the Cultural Affairs Bureau, or other related departments could act as a better medium between cultural creative operations and other government departments. It is because when we start a cultural creative operation, we need to face many complicated procedures involving different government departments. It would be good if cultural-related departments could help us to communicate with other public bodies. For example, some artists want to do street performances, but there are many problems relating to other departments restricting them from doing so.
In addition to the administrative procedures, what are other difficulties in relation to running cultural creative operations in Macau?
It is about Macau people's way of thinking. I'm 100 per cent local. The general characteristics of Macau residents are that they don't quite like showing off [their talents] or making themselves prominent among others. Developers of cultural creative industries are in fact restricted by this kind of thinking. Many people may think Macau people cannot make something special or new. Our kind of project exists in Taiwan and in Hong Kong, but the reason it is not in Macau is because we do not jump outside of the box.
You are launching a MOP10-million project at a time when the city's economy is facing a downturn. Do you see more opportunities or risks?
I see both opportunities and risks. I see opportunities as residents start to think more about their future when the economy is bad. For example, gaming workers may feel insecure about their current jobs and they may now consider doing their own things with their savings – which is an opportunity for me. However, it is true that the economy is getting worse. We are businessmen and we have seen our business going down. But we still need to try our best to maintain our business for when better times return. After all, the economy has its ups and downs. It will be too late if you only start your business when the economy is growing. It's like there will always be more people buying houses when the economy is bad. It is because they cannot afford to buy these when the economy is good.
What other future plans do you have for your company?
Our future development will follow the current direction. But first of all, we need to get this mall done well. For the future, I will keep looking for land resources, other malls, or other venues to expand our businesses.
The Village Mall, located on the first three floors of the Broadway Centre commercial building on Rua do Campo, is the sixth incubator-like platform launched by local businessman Window Lei for the city's cultural creative industry. Investing some MOP10 million to bring the project to a commercial building, the businessman told Business Daily that the project offers around 100 stores and studios for the local cultural creative industry – of which one third are already occupied. The three-storey cultural-creative mall is expected to provide trendy, lifestyle products on the first floor, and local fashion and cultural creative items on the second floor. The third floor, meanwhile, will serve as a hall for various kinds of events, in addition to an F&B area. The businessman's company Village Ltd is currently operating five other cultural creative platforms in the city's industrial buildings and on Hengqin Island.
Source: Macau Business Daily
