HillV2, the suburban shopping mall at HillView, opened its doors in September of 2014. It was much welcomed by residents around the area, evidenced by the crowds in the evenings and weekends. They even had to organise free valet services to resolve issues with limited parking. It seems business should be good here. How are things one year later?
It seems some things don’t quite work out in this mall, or neighbourhood. I was quite surprised that Black Angus closed down a few months ago. I thought that a fine steakhouse would work in this area. In fact, I thought they did have a steady stream of diners. The restaurant was never packed, but it was certainly never empty either. I’m not sure why it didn’t work out for them.
An optical shop also shut its doors. I suppose there just aren’t enough people coming to a suburban mall to fix up their eyesights. I am apparently one of the few people who patronised the shop, but only when they were running a promotion with attractive discounts.
It seems people mainly come to a mall like this for food and daily essentials. Most of the shops there are already either selling food or cater to daily essentials. Hence my surprise that some food outlets didn’t work out.
Besides Black Angus, Padang Gourmet and some other smaller units also exited. Starbucks and Cedele are probably ubiquitous enough to work everywhere. But there’s also Wine Connection Bistro, Starker, and others that seem quite popular. So I think in principle, selling food works.
There are still a couple of vacant shops that, interestingly, had never been occupied since day one. Along with a few others that that change hands, or shuttered and never got found a new tenant, it seems that HillV2 has failed to attract enough customers.
The new Downtown Line opening with a station nearby might have improved things a little. Indeed, during the last week of December, last year, when the Downtown Line rides were free, there were many local tourists looking around, not unlike how there were more crowds at other Downtown Line stops like Beauty World.
It’s early to say, of course, if the Downtown Line would really make a difference to HillV2. I suspect it will have little impact.
I have a simple suggestion. Setup an outdoor, but sheltered, playground. It will attract lots of young children, who will then bring along their parents. They can all feed businesses who can fill up the vacant shops.