Sino-Ocean eyes commercial properties

A costume performance was held at the opening ceremony of the Tianjin Sino-Ocean We-Life Future Plaza on Jan 1, 2014 in Tianjin. [Photo / Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Following the successful launch of the Beijing We-Life Future Plaza, a second We-Life shopping mall now stands in Tianjin's Hedong district.

The opening ceremony of the Tianjin Sino-Ocean We-Life Future Plaza was held on Jan 1, 2014.Wang Fushun, vice-president of Sino-Ocean Land Holdings Ltd, attended the ceremony.

Tianjin Sino-Ocean We-Life Future Plaza marks the third shopping center to be built by Sino-Ocean Land Holdings and also one of the constituent parts of the "Tianjin Sino-Ocean International Center," which represents Tianjin's first self-developed and self-operated urban complex.

With a total area of 130,000 square meters, the Tianjin Sino-Ocean We-Life Future Plaza is located in the CBD trading area of Hedong district. It is only 10 km from the Tianjin Binhai International Airport and less than 100 meters from the Sino-Ocean International Center stop on Tianjin's Line 2 subway.

The mall was built with the theory of "We Life" in mind, which combines ideas on public space building, energy saving, environment protection and leisure experiences along with shopping, catering and entertainment. The interior was designed by Tanseisha, a Japanese firm that works on research, planning, design, construction, and operations on commercial, public, hospitality, cultural, business and event spaces.

Inside the new shopping mall, retail stores such as H&M, MLB and DB GROUP, and restaurants like Youth Restaurant and US fast food chain Burger King now occupy about 30 percent of its business area.

An ice-skating club headed up by Li Ning, one of China's most famous gymnasts and managed by Wang Rui, champion of Asian ice dancing was established and an international standard ice stadium was also built to meet consumers' training and competition demands.

Another important element of the new shopping mall is its theme parks for kids. Two entertainment areas including toys, children gyms, and children’s entertainment facilities were built in the mall to attract families with young children.

According to Wang Fushun, vice-president of Sino-Ocean Land Holdings, the plaza utilizes differentiation and elaboration to improve its regional function and to fill in the blanks within the field of commercial projects for child entertainment. The plaza also stimulates the consumption needs of families, while driving and supporting related industries such as catering, cosmetology and film, to name just a few.

Meanwhile, a giant movie screen, already dubbed "The Biggest one in North China" was built inside the mall's Capital Cinema.

Zhaiwei (center), vice-manager of Department of Business Development for Sino-Ocean Land Holdings Ltd, attends the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Tianjin Sino-Ocean We-Life Future Plaza on Jan 1, 2014 in Tianjin. [Photo / Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]