Macau's iconic department store anchored a casino for 3 years — then it was paid to leave

New Yaohan has been Macau's best-known department store since 1997. When SJM opened its Grand Lisboa Palace resort on the Cotai Strip in November 2021, it made New Yaohan the mall's flagship retail anchor — a full department store with a Western-style food market, fashion and a children's shopping area, meant to draw shoppers into the new integrated resort.

The bet did not hold. On 5 March 2026 SJM Holdings announced that its resort arm and NYH Retail Management — the subsidiary that runs New Yaohan at the mall — had agreed to terminate the store-use rights agreement. The tenancy, signed in January 2020 for a 12-and-a-half-year term, would end far early: the use right expires on 31 December 2026 and is formally terminated on 1 January 2027.

The exit had a price. NYH agreed to pay SJM's resort company a total of about HK$31.9 million: HK$14.3 million by offsetting the deposit it had already placed, HK$12 million in gift vouchers redeemable at New Yaohan or the group's 'Panda' brand, and HK$5.6 million in cash. NYH must also restore the property at its own cost within 60 days of the year-end handover.

SJM framed the move as reshaping the mall: rather than keep a general department store, it wants to rework the retail space and lift the resort's appeal, and has floated a possible foreign retailer to take the space. The 2026 rent was cut from about HK$959,000 to HK$492,000 per month while the sales commission was raised from 4% to 5% — a sign of a store that was hardly selling.