After 27 years of serving rib-eye steak and apple pie to American cuisine lovers in Hong Kong, Dan Ryan’s Chicago Grill has closed its doors at the city’s Pacific Place mall. Taking its place: a trendy new Italian restaurant called Operetta.
‘I don’t know why they had to leave,’ said Ho Kwan-lun, a urologist who took selfies with his friends in front of Dan Ryan’s before going in for one last meal the day it closed on April 10. ‘It’s a shame. This place has been here so long.’
Landlord Swire Properties Ltd.’s decision not to renew Dan Ryan’s lease wasn’t about squeezing more rent from a new tenant. Instead, it’s an attempt to refresh its tenant mix to woo new visitors in response to Hong Kong’s deepest retail sales slump since 2003, when the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome disease emptied malls.
The million-dollar question for landlords: How to keep mall traffic flowing when wealthy mainland shoppers have turned lukewarm toward Hong Kong and the local economy is slowing in tandem with China’s? Developers are searching for the answer by bringing in new tenants offering free yoga classes, champagne and caviar pop-up bars, and gelato.
This post was published at David Stockmans Contra Corner on April 20, 2016.
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