U.S. property developer Taubman seeks to expand its footing in South Korea where a growing number of people are starting to embrace shopping malls as a mainstream retail channel, its regional chief said Tuesday.

"The United States is a good market but with limited opportunities going forward to create new shopping centers because the market is mature. So we had to look where we wanted to be as a company to have some future growth," said Taubman Asia President Rene Tremblay. "We decided that Asia was definitely where we wanted to be, and we selected two specific markets, which were Korea and China."

Taubman has been testing the local market in recent years. In 2012, it started servicing the 40,000-square-meter IFC Mall in the financial district of Yeouido that was jointly developed by AIG Global Real Estate and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. In 2016, it is scheduled to open the 160,000-square-meter Hanam Union Square in partnership with retail conglomerate Shinsegae.

But Taumban's development project faces growing competition as a handful of local retailers are also moving to open gigantic shopping centers in the outskirts of the capital as downtown department stores and shopping channels become flooded with Chinese tourists.

Retail giant Lotte recently opened the Lotte World Mall in the southern Seoul neighborhood of Jamsil, just a 30-minute drive from Hanam Union Square. Shinsegae and Lotte also operate fashion and luxury product outlets in the Gyeonggi Province cities of Icheon and Yeoju, both some 100 kilometers south of Seoul.

"They know the market well, but the market is big enough," said Tremblay, brushing off concerns about market saturation and voicing confidence in the success of shopping malls.

"There's room to grow because this market consists of 50 million people, a ton of buying power. People love to shop here, and this emerging trend of 'malling,' it's something here to stay."

In terms of expansion, Tremblay said the company hopes to bolster its ties with local partner Shinsegae.

"We are great partners, but it doesn't exclude the possibility of doing other things with other groups. But frankly at this point, our priority is to expand our relationship with Shinsegae," he said. (Yonhap)