Originally Posted by moondog

In the case of the latter (speaking of Shanghai, now), that ~700m hallway between tracks 1 and 2 (that all of the desirable BJ-SH trains seem to use) and the subway station entrance is simply not well equipped for retail. Sure, it is wide enough to have shops on both sides, but it lacks allocation for them (in terms of the architectural setup).

I am guessing that many seasoned mall operators would have simply creamed over the prospect of playing a role in the development of either of these projects, and would have invested in order to cover any differences in construction costs between what we have now, but they didn't appreciate the scale of the foot traffic has become a reality when the plans were in their early or intermediate stages... their loss... and, ours, as well.