Blue Mall invests USD$ 50 million on new 15 floor tower which will house a JW Marriott hotel and eight floors reserved for executive offices.
This added atop the USD$ 90 million invested in the construction of the Mall now in operations.
The hotel will have 121 suites with a later expansion of 23 more. The contract was signed with Marriott for 20 years.
The Mall is receiving over 250,000 visitors per month and as new stores open up, the foot traffic increases.
The market studies carried out for the Dominican Republic found a relative contrast to the global market. While in the global market just about 75% of women and 15% of men in the A, B and C strata shop relative to brands, in the Dominican Republic the same strata sectors are 85% for women and surprisingly 75% for men looking to shop quality brands. There's a strong brand culture identification in the Dominican Republic.
Of the 104 open for business stores in the Mall only Louis Vuitton, Carolina Herrera and Ferragamo are wholly owned by the same foreign global corporations. The rest are under operations of Dominican investors save for Camilo Ibrahim, the largest Venezuelan investor.
Blue Mall operates using a central register's server, which links all the sales points in all the stores, as they pay a percentage from sales generated to the administration. The model has been very successful and sales have increased 42% above from the same term last year.
