In Nanjing, many people have stereotypes about the north of the city: electric cars lined up under subway stations, noisy street vendors, and old commercial facilities...... For example, Maigao Bridge, for a long time in the past, was called the "urban-rural junction".
However, since the opening of Wangu Hui Life Plaza in 2015, the businesses in the entire northern part of the city have begun to open high: Changfa Plaza, Merchants Garden City, and Vientiane City in the north of the city...... Now more than eight years have passed, Wangu Hui Life Plaza, as a former pioneer, has now closed its store unexpectedly and upgraded.
The "White Moonlight" of Maigao Bridge
In the era of the roar of machines, Maigaoqiao is synonymous with Huadian (741 Factory): the country's first fluorescent lamp, special light bulb, black and white picture tube, and color picture tube were all born here.
◎Huadian state-owned old factory
There are self-operated dormitories, canteens, swimming pools, ice rinks, auditoriums, etc., and shopping is also done in the Maigaoqiao Market and the Gaoqiao Market across the street. However, with the continuous acceleration of urbanization, most of the state-owned factories have been demolished, and the Takahashi Market, which once contracted for shopping and happiness, no longer meets everyone's needs.
◎The current situation of the Takahashi market
Until 2005, Wangu Hui Life Plaza like a spring thunder, woke up the entire north of the city, the business by East China Electronics Group and Nanjing Wangu Commercial Management Co., Ltd. jointly built, officially opened on August 1, 2015, is the first large-scale commercial complex in the north of the city Maigaoqiao area, with a total volume of 100,000 square meters, the second phase of the shopping center volume of about 35,000 square meters.
Although in the early stage of opening at that time, Wangu Hui Life Plaza experienced various negative events such as "suspected illegal land use" and "facing closure before opening", but the expectations of the citizens of Chengbei are still increasing, not only the only large-scale commercial shopping center in Chengbei at that time, but also the introduction of Starbucks, Pizza Hut and other first stores in the north of the city, but also attracted the first cinema in Taiwan, China, Ximanke to settle in the north of the city for the first time, some local residents said frankly: "Starbucks that used to take half an hour by bus to drink, can now be drunk at the doorstep." ”
◎The hot business situation of Wangu Hui Life Plaza
In 2021, when the author lived near the Hongshan Zoo in the north of the city, the author was more willing to come to Wangu Hui Life Plaza than Jin Mao Lanxiu City, which is very convenient for the distance of 1 station of Metro Line 1.
Now, before the second phase opens, the first phase of Wangu Hui Life Plaza has suddenly closed, which makes the author feel stunned.
According to the announcement, in order to better provide services for consumers in the future, the store will be comprehensively upgraded inside and outside. It is scheduled to cease operations on February 16, 2024. Some brands 1F: Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Watsons, Grace, Huawei, Wu Liangcai, Baoqing Yinlou, Chow Tai Fook, Saturday Fu B1: Leke 3F: Kaba will continue to be open for you.
However, when the author investigated, he found that Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Baoqing Yinlou, etc. are still in normal business, but Nai Xue's tea has officially closed.
Not only that, after 10 o'clock in the morning, there are basically no people on the first floor of the mall, and the door of the mall is not open, and the 3F Kaba needs to enter through the side door next to it.
According to the grapevine, the closure and upgrade of Wangu Hui Life Plaza is due to increasing competition on the one hand, and on the other hand, it was acquired by the Japanese-funded CCD.
The authenticity of the information is still unknown, but it was previously rumored that Nanjing's first TSUTAYA BOOKSTORE Tsutaya was about to settle in, which made this rumor even more credible.
The uneven "Chengbei Commercial"
However, from an objective point of view, in the past two years, with the successive landing of commercial complexes such as Changfa Plaza, Yanziji Merchants Garden City, and Chengbei Vientiane City, the voice of Wangu Hui Life Plaza in the north of the city business district has indeed become smaller and smaller.
The increasingly fierce commercial track also makes Wanguhui Life Plaza embarrassed: from the distance point of view, Wanguhui Life Plaza is less than 3 kilometers away from Wanshou business district and about 1 km away from Hongshan New Town business district.
At the same time, Wangu Hui Life Plaza is very close to the Yiyi Cultural and Leisure Commercial District, and the surrounding community is very rich in merchants, which basically meets the daily needs of the surrounding residents.
In addition, because the Maigaoqiao plate is adjacent to the new Xuanwu plate, the business of the new Xuanwu will also be further diverted to Wangu Hui Life Plaza: for example, the China Merchants TOD shopping center not far away, the project will build about 230,000 square meters of "astronomy + ecology" theme TOD business, benchmarking Shenzhen Legend IP Sea World, and build about 149,000 square meters of TOD shopping center, about 30,000 square meters of theme park green corridor, "Breeze Journey" theme life and leisure area, inspiration and creative market, four major commercial groups.
It can be said that at present, Wangu Hui Life Plaza is in a difficult situation, on the one hand, its supporting facilities are difficult to support high-end configurations such as Deji and IFC, and there are strong competitors such as China Merchants TOD Shopping Center and Vientiane City in the middle of the positioning...... Perhaps at this time, embracing Japanese capital in exchange for more Japanese first stores can take a different path. It is rumored that the project will be upgraded by the end of 2024, so what will happen to the upgraded Wangu Hui Life Plaza, and let's wait and see!