Li Ka-shing’s Luxury Mall Sits Empty as Chinese Spending Plunges

In Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui district, the mock-classical 1881 Heritage mall used to lure queues of mainland Chinese tourists eager to shop at boutiques operated by brands such as Tiffany, Cartier and Chopard. Now it attracts neither crowds nor brands. Only three of the more than 30 units at the mall owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Asset Holdings Ltd. are occupied, and its colonnaded courtyards are quiet.

On nearby Canton Road, a shop previously rented by Swatch Group AG’s Omega for about HK$7.5 million ($962,000) a month is leased to a bank for 80% less, according to real estate agents familiar with the deal. Over in Causeway Bay’s Russell Street, a Transformers-themed fast-food restaurant has taken the place of Burberry Plc. Its rent is 89% below the HK$8.8 million the British firm was forking out in 2019, the agents said, declining to be identified because the matter is private.