Mitsui Fudosan Co. has completed construction of a shopping center in Shanghai, the first in China in a series of LaLaport-brand retail complexes widely operated in Japan by the major real estate developer.

The company said Thursday the facility, named Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Shanghai Jinqiao, will open partially next spring on the first to sixth floors of an existing building, with a full opening set for fall 2021.

It will house about 220 stores, including 13 Japanese restaurants, in a total shopping area of some 60,000 square meters and have parking space for about 1,000 cars.

A "Freedom Gundam" statue, depicting a manned robot featuring in a Japanese animation series, will be erected at the entrance in cooperation with the Bandai Namco Group.

Mitsui plans to open a LaLaport shopping mall in Malaysia in 2021 and two others in Taiwan in 2022. (NNA/Kyodo)

==Kyodo

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