The growth of recent Indonesian economy can be seen quantitatively from the rapid development of property business.

Various building functions are developed in order to answer public needs. Looking at it from a public response point of view, it is safe to say that one concept which develops rapidly is the trade mall concept. Trade mall, a concept that combines fulfilling public needs with entertainment facilities, has become a phenomenal project that grows rapidly all over Indonesia in these last several years. By offering a unique concept, which is a market-oriented, which function and program is based on the market demands, has been very successful in Indonesia property world. With the 1998 economic crisis in Indonesia, complete with all the ups and downs of dynamics, the players in property business are forced to find new concepts to respond to the monetary crisis then. With property business in bad condition, investors who used to finance the development of malls, and other property decided to pull away from the risky economy. This required all developers to find other ways to finance their projects.

On the other side, when property business has reached its saturation point, the demand for development has diminished. For years property development was weak and restrained because of the crisis, which led to the accumulation of development needs. By the end of 2001, the property market was increasing, thus followed by the booming demand from the public. Many developers grew with their own concepts. One of the concepts which we are familiar with was called ITC.

Characteristics that is distinctive to compare this Trade Center with its predecessor of mall concept, are as follows:

  • Trade Center consist of small stores, of between 4 -12 m2 space
  • Corridor is not too spacious to ensure space efficiency
  • Having 2nd corridor
  • Placement of stores/ kiosks must be executed as efficiently as possible to ensure bigger profits in terms of number of stores and their sellers.

By executing this concept, the passion in the property industry, especially mall buildings has started to rise significantly, proven by the birth of shopping malls with names such as ITC Mangga Dua, Roxy Mas, and ITC Cempaka Mas.

List 35 Trade Mall Projects Already Constructed in Indonesia

The development of ITCs is a strategy from developers to build a mall, and further divide the stores into smaller sizes. This strategy is executed so that the stores are not leased anymore, but directly sold to the customer (strata title), making it more affordable for the sellers. This means the funds needed for project developments need not to be found elsewhere but from the sale of the shops in the Trade Center.

From our observation, shopping centers with trade center concepts seem to be liked and able to fulfill the public needs. However, from the journey of the trade center itself, we can see that it takes quite a long time to introduce that function to the public. It took years to make the public like it. This is because there were not any special appeals for the public to come, other than fulfilling special needs like clothings, accessories and other needs.

The Distribution of Anchor Tenant, Big Tenant and Shop in Trade Mall at Jabodetabek Area

This has become a real problem for the developers, because projects with trade center concepts need longer time to provide return on investments, including costs for maintenance, etc. Before enjoying the abundance of customers which is taking a long time, developers have to suffer a considerable amount of loss. Therefore, with various analyses of the public needs, a new concept is born. The upgraded concept of trade center: Trade Mall. A new concept that creates some kind of ‘magnet’ to appeal more to the public. This concept is a combination between lease mall and strata mall in physical, comfort as well as facilities point of views, but still able to provide profit to all.

“To the end of 2001, the property market was increasing, thus followed by the booming demand from the public. Many developers grew with their own concepts.’’

Based on the problems happening to the trade centers, developers then analyzed further about the needs of the shop owners/end users, including the needs of the public in general. Based on this analysis a new development concept was born, trade mall business model.
Trade Mall is a new concept that provides a “magnet” to attract public attention. This concept is a combination of mall and trade center concepts which existed earlier. This trade mall concept is considering profits to all parties involved, such as the public, buyer and also developer.

When putting more attention to it, we can see that the public interest towards entertainment values is quite high. This fact serves as one of the answers needed to solve the problems in trade center concept. Trade malls then act as a shopping center that is market oriented, as a newly developed business, specifically searching public interests and include it into the space program concept to make it act as an appeal of the building itself. This will make the visiting customers not only find their specific needs, but also can join the facilities and entertainment provided.