Shenzhen Citic City Plaza, Shenzhen’s oldest purpose-built shopping mall, could close in the middle of this year after years of decline, Winshang News reports.

The mall, which is located on Shennan Central Road on the border between Luohu and Futian Districts and opened in 2002, has already seen many shops on the second and third floors close down.

Originally known as Zhongxin Plaza, its nearest subway station is Kexueguan. It is close to Shenzhen Museum, Shenzhen Municipal Committee Building and Shenzhen Lychee Park, which once placed it in a prime position to remain Shenzhen’s premier shopping mall for many years.

Li Yingfu, general manager of the mall, explained that although it is the oldest mall in the city, it is lagging behind in architecture, layout, relations with the local government, security, proximity to a subway station and other important factors.

“Due to the intensity of the competition and the speed of Shenzhen’s growth, Shenzhen Citic City Plaza only had five years at the top instead of thirty,” said Li.

The mall has also suffered from instability due to changes in its management team.

In January 2007, Ping’an Trust bought the mall for 2 billion RMB. In October 2011, the trust changed the name of the mall to Shenzhen Citic City Plaza and pledged to invest 50 million RMB in refurbishing it.

Many long-term members of the mall’s management teams did not like the changes the trust was making, and all but a few left or were let go.

Yang Jingyu of Ping’an explained that the investors planned to have an additional 80 luxury brand stores added and have the mall extended by 50,000 square meters. Yang attributed the mall’s decline to its failure to keep up with the needs of shoppers older than 45.

Li Yingfu attributed the lack of success of Ping’an’s initial investment to their lack of experience running managing shopping malls. Now there are almost 30 major shopping malls in the city and Shenzhen City Citic Plaza has failed to keep up with its newer, sleeker rivals.