OneCity Shopping Centre welcomes 18 shops

OneCity Shopping Centre yesterday welcomed 18 shops including its anchor tenant Hua Ho as it looks to be the largest retail complex in and around Muara.

Situated next to International School Brunei along Jalan Utama Salambigar in Sg Hanching, OneCity is the nearest integrated mall for residents in Mengkubau, Salambigar, Serasa and Mentri; housing a cinema, apartments, and up to 60 shop lots which are expected to open over the next few months.

Brunei’s largest department store and supermarket Hua Ho announced that their OneCity outlet would be the first of their 11 branches to operate from 8am to 11pm daily.

“We’re opening earlier (instead of 9.30am or 10am) to hopefully cater to parents and extending from 10pm (to 11pm) so that residents nearby have more to do in the evening,” said Lau Soon Lin, the grandson of Hua Ho’s founder Pehin Lau Ah Kok.

Hua Ho’s latest branch is separated into the supermarket and a bakery with a hot kitchen serving freshly cooked food on the first floor and a department store on the second floor.

Lau said the total area was comparable to their outlets in Kiulap and Manggis, despite having fewer floors. Their supermarket product range at OneCity will almost be identical to other branches, but Lau said that their department store was focused on more “affordable to mid-range” merchandise, in comparison to the more premium brands seen in other Hua Ho branches like Tanjong Bunut.

Lau added that while sales tied to promotions in conjunction with Chinese have been declining annually, Hua Ho’s overall retail business has remained consistent, with their database of H2 card holders numbering at least 60,000.

OneCity property manager Hafizah Sazalee said retail units were still available on the first and third floor, while the 60 apartment units which occupy the final three floors are still under construction.

The majority of OneCity’s tenants are established retail and F&B franchise businesses already operating several outlets in the Sultanate including Jolibee, KFC, Sugarbun and Pezzo.

Newer addittions include EM’s Hair Studio – a saloon with separate sections for men and women – as well as Korean DIY juice franchise Beesket, who are making their debut in Brunei-Muara after operating at KBSentral Shopping Centre in Belait for the past four years.

“There’s quite a lot of competition in Bandar. After studying the market for a few years we decided that OneCity would be a good opportunity to tap into a new population,” said Beesket’s owner Chang See Tang.

OneCity’s two main retail floors which house the majority of vendors are over 100,000 square feet. The complex also has over 500 free indoor parking spaces.

Watch: Inside OneCity Shopping Centre