ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the major sources of retail capital, the emergence of domestic developers, development patterns, and the lessons to be learned. Asian capitals played an important role in the early period of shopping center development in Chinese cities. The Japanese Aeon is one of the earliest Asian retailers to build shopping centers in China. Its first enclosed mall was a community shopping center built in the late 1990s in the City of Qingdao, and anchored by a Jusco Department Store and a Jusco Supermarket. A number of Western retailers also entered the business of shopping center development in China, abandoning a decade-long strategy of leasing, mainly because suitable commercial real estate has become increasingly difficult or costly to obtain. The mixed-use developments bring new shapes to both the physical and legal structure of shopping center development, spawning new configurations for real estate ownership.
