Sogo wants Taipei Dome shopping mall to be largest in Southeast Asia

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Sogo wants to turn its Taipei Dome shopping mall into the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia, Far Eastern Group Chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) said Friday (Nov. 4). (CNA photo)

The 40,000-seat sports arena in Taipei City is nearing completion after years mired in disputes between its developer, Farglory Group, and Taipei City Government, over issues that include the safety of visitors.

The complex also includes a shopping mall, a department store, and other shopping areas, for which the Far Eastern Group’s Sogo Department Stores won the contract last June. Hsu told reporters Friday the huge size of the project posed a challenge, but the company had invited three prominent designers to plan the space into the largest shopping mall in Southeast Asia, per UDN.

The commercial area will cover 10 floors, but there will also be six floors of movie theaters, one floor of shops all around the arena, and shops in an underground passage near the Mass Rapid Transit station. The area to be managed by Sogo covers close to 139,000 square meters, according to the report.

Hsu identified the main challenge as how to make the new mall different from Sogo’s existing department stores on nearby Zhongxiao East Road and from the new Far Eastern Department Store in Zhubei, Hsinchu County. Here, the design featured architectural elements typical of the local Hakka people.