Festival Walk

Festival Walk is located in Yau Yat Chuen, Sham Shui Po District,[1] and is directly linked to Kowloon Tong station, which is an interchange station of the East Rail line and the Kwun Tong line of Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway. Festival Walk has a direct rail connection to Mainland China. It also has a pedestrian link to the City University of Hong Kong.

Construction of the mall commenced in 1994 and was completed in 1998.[2] Significant challenges were faced in the creation of the 21,000 m² site due to its terraced land form as well as its narrow land shape. The tunnels for the Kwun Tong line of the MTR run through the full length of the site. During the construction of the building's four basement levels, 460,000 m³ of earth had to be removed.[3]

Festival Walk was jointly owned by Swire Properties and CITIC Pacific until 2006, when Swire Properties bought out the 50% stake held by its partner. In July 2011, Mapletree Investments acquired the property for HK$18.8 billion (approximately US$2.4 billion), making it the world's largest retail real estate deal in 2011.

In 2015, it was announced that the AMC Cinema, a major anchor tenant, would move to Yuen Long due to a rent increase that the director of Broadway Circuit (operator of the AMC chain in Hong Kong) called "very astonishing". The AMC cineplex had been a tenant of Festival Walk for over 17 years.[4] The cinema was replaced by an eight-screen Festival Grand Cinema in 2016.

P1 to P3 It is a parking lot. Vehicles can enter the building from Dalu Road and reach the floor via the roundabout. Among them, the P2 layer is equipped with challenger car beauty maintenance services.

MTR The largest tenant on this floor is the Taste Supermarket with an area of 35,000 square feet. The remaining tenants include the Bank of East Asia, Broadway Electric, Fortress, Mannings and Watsons. In addition, there is a fast escalator on this floor, which is connected to Kowloon Tong station (Kwun Tong line) via a tunnel.

LG2 The main tenants of LG2 are international high-end fashion. Mainly include Bally, COACH, Longchamp, SPORTMAX, i.t and I.T. The remaining tenants are mainly jewellery and jewellery, including Chow Sang Sang, Chow Tai Fook, Links of London, Montblanc, OMEGA, ROLEX and Swarovski. Restaurants include Dan Ryan's Chicago Grill and Han Teng Court. There is a passage connecting Kowloon Tong station (East Rail line) on this floor. From its opening to 2003, the first tropical rainforest restaurant in Asia was installed on this floor, which increased the popularity of the mall. After closing, it was changed to mi food court, and it was changed to i.t after less than a year of operation.

LG1 The main tenants of LG1 are mainly international fashion, including Apple Store, agnès b., AAPE, FURLA, MICHAEL KORS, kate spade new york, VIVIENNE TAM, ATSURO TAYAMA, Marks and Spencer, PS by Paul Smith and Tommy Hilfiger. The remaining tenants include Wine Shop Enoteca, a wine retail specialty store, and restaurants including Amaroni's, COVA Caffe and Oliver's Super Sandwiches. There is an escalator on this floor, which is connected to the City University of Hong Kong via a tunnel, and there is also a passage to the Kowloon Tong Station (East Rail Line) part.

After PageOne was officially closed on 17 November 2016, MUJI was opened at the original site on 4 April 2017.

G The main tenants on the G floor are mainly home furnishings and cosmetic brands. Cosmetics mainly include Aésop, CHANEL BEAUTÈ, Clé de Peau Beauté, Dior Beauty, Estēe Lauder, Giorgio Armani, Joyce Beauty, Lancôme and Shiseido. Home furnishing products include Bang & Olufsen, J Select Quality+Life, LAURA ASHLEY HOME, Liuli Workshop and Zara Home. Other tenants include Fotomax, MaBelle, Madia, Pandora, Pashma, Times Candy and Standard Chartered Bank. There are entrances and exits on this level connecting Festival Walk public transport interchange (bus stop, minibus stop, taxi stand and Tat Chee Avenue).

UG

Ice rink

MCL Cinema

AMC Cinema (before graduation) Tenants on the UG floor are mainly young fashion, including A|X Armani Exchange, bauhaus, CAMPER, H&M, Hollister, Levi's, SPORT B and VANS. There are also many beauty shops on this floor, including 10/10 HOPE, ACCA KAPPA, BIOTHERM, Clinique, FANCL HOUSE, Kiehl's, L'Occitane, MAKE UP FOR EVER and The Body Shop. The remaining tenants include LLADRÓ, LOG-ON, STACCATO, as well as restaurants caffè HABITŪ the table, EXP, Starbucks, YO MAMA Frozen Yogurt and LE PAIIN GRILLÉ under agnès b.

There is also an office lobby, MCL Festival Grand Cinema entrance and an indoor ice skating rink on the UG floor.

L1 L1 tenants are mainly young people's fashion, mainly including adidas Originals, Aldo, Calvin Klein Jeans, Calvin Klein Underwear, Giordano Ladies, UNIQLO, and even i.t's b+ab, :CHOCOOLATE and double-park. The remaining tenants include Time Gallery, Dianjing Products, G2000, GigaSports, Joy & Peace, Eyewear 88 and Swatch.

L1 also has a number of restaurants, including Annan, Häagen-Dazs, Huangfu, Qianliang, School Food, Pacific Coffee and Queen's Hotel.

L2 L2 floor west ceiling decoration at night L2 mainly focuses on sports, children's clothing and life gifts. The main tenants include Toys R Us, Perth Music and Premium Hair Salon i PRIVATE i SALON. NAIL NAIL. The remaining tenants include AIGLE, Columbia Sportswear, Ferrari Store Junior, GapKids & babyGap, ItsImagical, MBT, Nautica, Nicholas & Bears, OSIM, Petit Bateau, Cath Kidston, SKECHERS Kids and Timberland.

Restaurants on this floor include SimplyLife, Greyhound Café, a fashionable Thai restaurant, PIZZAEXPRESS and McDonald's. The food court "Sexiangxiangquan" has 6 restaurants. Including Café de Coral, Chi Kee, Pepper Lunch, Third Brother Tan, Taixing and Yoshinoya.

Festival Walk comprises some one million square feet of retail space. It has approximately 220 shops and restaurants, a multiplex cinema and an ice rink. Located above the mall is an additional 220,000 square feet (20,000 m²) of office space.[5] Festival Walk's three level car park can accommodate 830 cars.[5]

Festival Walk is positioned as a "comfortable" middle-market mall with the emphasis on service rather than price. The relatively spacious stores are mid-range to high-end and include brands such as Agnes B flagship store, Calvin Klein Jeans, Hollister, H&M, Juicy Couture and Kate Spade New York. Like malls in many western countries, Festival Walk has information booths to assist shoppers.[6]

The seven-storey shopping mall occupies three lower-ground levels, a ground level and three levels above ground. A six-level atrium, some 120 m long and 30 m wide atrium cuts longitudinally through the interior of the mall. A glass skylight over the atrium provides natural light to the interior of the building. There is a food court on the mall's topmost floor, with a view of the indoor skating rink.[3]

Festival Walk is equipped with a waste management system for all food service outlets within the mall. An organic food digester was installed to accelerate the decomposition of food waste into waste water and food residue which is then discharged harmlessly into the sewerage system.[7] The developers also installed a water-cooled air-conditioning system in 2002 at a cost of HK$13 million. The developer claims the system's high energy efficiency has saved 5 million kWh each year.[7]

The development was a 50:50 joint venture between Swire Properties and CITIC Pacific. The partners secured the plot in a Government land auction in 1993 with a HK$2.9 billion bid, and developed it at an estimated cost of $2.2 billion.[8] In January 2006, in Hong Kong's biggest property deal, Swire Properties paid HK$6.18 billion to buy out its partner's half share.[9] In July 2007, it was announced that Swire Pacific was contemplating listing the property as a real estate investment trust.[10] In July 2011, Mapletree Investments acquired Festival Walk at a property value of HK$18.8 billion which was the largest global retail real estate deal in 2011[11] In 2013, Festival Walk was divested to Mapletree's fourth real estate investment trust, the Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust, as one of its two seed assets in 2013. In 2018, Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust renamed as Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust upon completion of acquisition of Japan portfolio.[12] The mall is now managed by Mapletree North Asia Property Management Limited.

Water leaking into the mall

At approximately 9:00 pm (0800 GMT) on 30 March 2014 hailstones the size of golfballs shattered the ceiling windows of Festival Walk during a heavy thunderstorm, causing rain to pour straight into the interior of the mall.[13][14] Some sections of interior ceiling collapsed and ankle-deep flooding was reported. Water from the shopping mall overflowed into the attached railway station.[15] Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust Management, the manager of Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust, which owns Festival Walk, said its staff were on site to render assistance.[16] However, mall management were criticized for failing to alert the public through the mall's website and via relevant social media networks. Evacuation of the public was also done poorly, as at 10:00 pm the public was still on scene sending live images to social media networks.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Festival Walk.

• Official website
• Official Festival Walk Glacier website
• Official Festival Walk Shopping News website