Disruption Hits Shopping Centres
Shopping centers are facing a big challenge as digitalisation is changing the face of retail as we know it. What’ s the point in going to a shopping centre, if you can find what you’ re looking for online with a few clicks of a mouse?
Photo: SRV
S hopping centres are coping with the situation by emphasising the experience and by developing a more personal relationship with the patrons. In this effort, shopping centres are using also digital tools.
Retail is far from dead, if you look at the new retail space that is being built in and around Helsinki, for instance. At the end of September 2016, approximately 150,000 sqm of new retail space was under construction in Helsinki Metropolitan Area( HMA).
Additionally, many new projects – the largest of which is YIT’ s 85,000 sqm Mall of Tripla – will begin in the near future. Still, the KTI Market Review for Autumn 2016 points out that the amount of vacant retail space should remain rather stable during the next year.
Eye on the Horizon
The local property market professionals expect that retail rents will remain stable in the city centres of Jyväskylä and Turku, for instance, but to decrease in Tampere, where many retail premises are currently vacant. One of the challenges in the Tampere central area is the increasing supply, especially due to the development of over 50,000 sqm Ratina shopping centre, due for completion in 2018.
In 2018, the REDI shopping centre will also open its doors in Kalasatama, close to Helsinki inner city. REDI promises to be one-of-a-kind shopping centre and landmark in Finland, with a 60,000 sqm of retail space. Helsinki’ s largest downtown shopping centre will feature eight tower buildings – one of them Majakka( Lighthouse), Finland’ s tallest residential tower( 132m).
According to the Shopping Center Barometer of the Finnish Council of Shopping Centers, the outlook for shopping centres seems more positive than, say, one year ago. Two thirds of the barometer respondents expect that retail sales and the number of visitors will increase in the shopping centres. The majority of shopping centre market professionals believe that due to growing population and consumer demand, the future
18 Nordicum