MORE than 80,000 people visited the RM500mil Gurney Paragon during its first day of business.

Gurney Paragon director Lily Tan said 50,000 people were expected to visit Gurney Paragon each weekend from now till the end of the year as more stores opened up.

Among the top draws at the mall are a 30,000sq ft supermarket called Sam’s Groceria occupying the lower ground floor as well as Padini and Brands concept stores occupying 50,000sq ft on levels 2 and 3.

Diners can head to the Hokkaido Ichiba restaurant taking up 10,000sq ft on the sixth level.

Movie fans will have a good choice of shows at the nine Tanjung Golden Valley cinema halls at Level 8 which will open in December.

“More outlets such as Canali and H&M will open next month on level 1, while Debenhams, a UK fashion brand, will open in September,” said Tan on Tuesday.

“Level 1 and 2 feature mostly clothes and accessories.”

“Level 3 is dedicated to sportswear while furniture stores will occupy level 4. The fifth level will have a 13,000sq ft food court,” she said.

She added that IT shops could be found on level 6, and beauty and reflexology outlets on level 7.

“There is also a section on level 6 called Penang On 6 which features outlets selling locally made accessories and apparel,” Tan said.

Meanwhile, Hunza Properties Bhd executive chairman Datuk Khor Teng Tong said that some 140 outlets had opened at the mall.

“To date, over RM200mil has been spent on the renovation of the stores.

“We expect the mall to be 80% occupied by the end of the year,” he said.

Khor said it would take eight to 10 years for the group to recover the RM500mil investment on Gurney Paragon.

The mall has 700,000sq ft of floor area for leasing, according to Tan.

Moving forward, Hunza aims to repeat its success at Gurney Paragon for a commercial-cum-residential project on a 42-acre site in Bayan Baru in the southwest district, according to Khor.

Source: StarProperty.my