The current team leader Makoto Furukawa joined the Terrace Mall Shonan Project in the summer of 2006, having just completed nearly a decade-long involvement in a retail facility project during which he gained experience in the full spectrum of shopping center development, operation and renovation.
“I have been very eager to put to good use the knowledge and experience I had acquired since I was assigned to this project. I saw a huge opportunity in being able to participate in a project aimed at establishing a flagship development for our retail facilities business.”
About five years later, at 11:00 am on November 11, 2011, the Terrace Mall Shonan was opened as the core facility of Shonan C-X and the product of joint development efforts by Sumitomo Corporation, Sumisho Urban Kaihatsu Co., Ltd. (the Group company responsible for mall operation), and GIC Real Estate Pte Ltd (the real estate investment arm of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, hereinafter "GIC").
Sumitomo Corporation has given this retail facility property a scale and composition worthy of a flagship development: a total floor area of around 170,000m2, shop area of roughly 63,000m2 and 281 shops. According to Furukawa, “We completed this project successfully because all of our members believed in the potential of the site being developed and adhered to their commitment to carry through with our flagship development.”
Shonan C-X, the birthplace of Terrace Mall Shonan, is a large-scale urban project planned and developed by Fujisawa City at Kanagawa Prefecture. The goal is to have fully major urban infrastructure in the city, ranging from public, commercial, industrial and research to housing and medical facilities, in a vast space of approx 250,000m2. It was Susumu Higashino, presently serving as an observer for the project, who proposed the basic plan for this urban improvement.
Higashino first became involved with this plot of land more than 30 years ago. At that time, large-scale urban development was a grand ambition for Sumitomo Corporation. Taking the initiative, Higashino approached Kanto Special Steel Works, Ltd., the owner of the land, and repeatedly explained urban development plans to propose how to utilize of this industrial site. After unrelentingly chasing this dream for 30 years, the first glimmer of hope appeared in April 2003 when he was officially commissioned by that company and offered the opportunity to propose an urban development plan that would draw out the land’s maximum potential.
In January 2007 he was given a chance to submit his proposal for Fujisawa City’s Shonan C-X retail facility competition. Higashino shared his thirty-year dream and the site’s potential with his team members, and the team presented the concept of “a facility harmonious with the natural surroundings and people of Shonan.” The philosophy expressed in the proposal matched with high acclaim, and development for the Terrace Mall Shonan began.
In participating in this competition, the Terrace Mall Shonan Project put together a 20-page concept book setting out the proper philosophy for a mall suited to this site. Taking a cue from the fact that the buildings of ancient Greece and Rome and other such structures embodying the spirit of their times are still extant today; Higashino’s proposal was to design a mall that would send a message toward the 21st century. He wished the mall to harmonize with the surrounding nature and people of Shonan also derived from this philosophy. This concept book presently serves as a bible for actions among the people involved with the Terrace Mall Shonan.
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