Core Pacific City mall closes doors, attracting 100,000 people

Taipei, Nov. 30 (CNA) The Core Pacific City mall in Taipei welcomed some 100,000 customers to its establishment Saturday, the last day of business after 18 years.

The iconic granite-clad building on Bade Road, also known as the Living Mall, closed for good Saturday night and will be torn down to make way for a new office complex.

The Core Pacific Group (CPG), the owner of the shopping plaza, said many customers came to the mall one last time to take selfies as a form of memorabilia, participate in prize drawings and take advantage of big discounts on products.

When Core Pacific first opened in November 2001 in Taipei's Songshan District, it was said to be the biggest shopping mall in Taiwan at the time, with 62,000 pings (204,600 square meters) of floor space -- 12 stories above ground and eight levels underground.

The mall started off operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and pulled in revenue of NT$8 billion in its first year.

Over the years, however, it lost customers, due mainly to the lack of a nearby MRT station and the growing popularity of the Xinyi District shopping area.

Faced with heavy losses, CPG began in December 2018 to seek a buyer for the complex, which was priced at NT$38 billion.

It was finally sold in September to CPG affiliate China Petrochemical Development Corp. (CPDC) for a price of NT$37.2 billion.

CPDC plans to tear down the Living Mall next year and construct an office complex that is scheduled to be opened in 2022.