Shopping Centers Russia Октябрь 2022 | Page 64

Marina Stogova highlights a number of trends in renovation of shopping centres.

- A few years ago, it was common to change the spaces by adding new gastrospaces and increasing the food-court. These days, such everyday formats are complemented by social spaces. We are getting spa-complexes, new grounds, new art spaces, co-workings, etc. as parts of shopping centres. Sharing is a new IT for giving away a floor space in a shopping centre to an operator which does not even belong to a retail industry.

- These days, international brands are being taken over by local brands, which is a one-way yet painful process for some owners of shopping centres.

- The trend on cutting down the areas of key tenants is obvious as well as the development of cross-format shop-in-shops.

- There is another trend to develop rather small projects which are very close to the end buyer.

- Merging online and offline sales is ongoing.

Win-win transformation

An example of a successful transformation usually given is the city park Grad in Voronezh, where there is a transformation of the concept. The changes include multifunctional public spaces as well as areas for children.

The Shopping and Entertainment Centre Vesna in Altufievo is transforming several functional zones. There is now a food court with individual seating areas and a lot of plants, brightly lit entrance spaces, rest areas in galleries, free eco-lounge coworking space in the central atrium. In the shopping centre Aerport Gallery, due to the renovation, the number of renting units has increased while the size has become more efficient which increased the lease rent.

Plans to renovate their shopping and shopping and entertainment centres have been announced by the owners from the regions: Armada (Orenburg), Armada-Asia (Chelyabinsk), Gudvin (Tyumen) and others. Key renovations in Moscow are held in Moscow: Mega Teply Stan, Mega Khimki, Kashirskaya Plaza, Kuntsevo Plaza, Central Childnren’s Store and Evropolis.

Marina Stogova offered an example of the shopping and entertainment centre Metropolis. The owner decided to change the segment. As a result, the traffic did not only decrease, it actually increased because of the influx of new target audience. The shopping centre constantly adds new formats to its pool of tenants, reconsiders the zoning and design of public areas.

The shopping centre Sokolniki has also shown a great result after the renovation. Thanks to the concept of close connection between the residential area and the retail floor, the park motives in the public spaces, the footfall went up by 40% and the asset value by 35%, says Stogova.

Pavel Lyulin, an expert in retail property management, General Director of SVN Eastward Property Management, says that European shopping centres change their concepts once every five years and a large-scale renovation are carried out every 10 years to keep the project going. The reasons for the transformation could be a new competitor in the area who must get separated from the oldie conceptwise, changes in the market in general, or in the location, or a decrease in footfall caused by other reasons.