The renovation concept for one of Russia’s oldest superregional centers, MEGA Teply Stan, implies orientation towards the local community a lot more than before. “We do realize that people will hardly travel to us from the opposite end of Moscow just to walk in a new park or sit in one of the restaurants to open soon,” says the mall manager Oksana Kozlova. “This does not discomfit us, since we have enough potential shoppers residing in the primary catchment area.”
MEGA Teply Stan, with upgrade investments estimated at 29.5bn rubles, is certainly a rather radical case study of “imitation”. Yet, in the opinion of Anzhela Brylova, Project Director at Property Department, TRINFICO, even a regional center will never be able to realign in imitation of a neighborhood or community center, since they have totally different objectives and catchment basins. “Redesignation of a community center as a neighborhood center is possible in the lack of any unique features. This can be caused by shrinking of the potential catchment area and stiffening of the competition. In other words, unless it is an exclusive project, tougher competition/altering environment may lead to downgrading. This change can also be triggered by the overlapping of catchment areas, when local residents start seeking FMCG goods in a community center, such as food products, medicines, cleaning services, etc,” the expert believes.
“Even large shopping malls have always been pegged to a certain residential area,” agrees Dmitry Belanov, Head of Projects at IFG. The only difference, according to Mr. Belanov, is that the catchment basin of one
Retail swiftly aligns with new lifestyle trends. Shopping not far from home to save time is in vogue nowadays. The past year gave a hefty boost to this trend, with shoppers understandably unwilling to visit overcrowded places. As a result, community and neighborhood centers are more resilient than mammoth shopping malls, as estimated by experts. As for large malls, some of them try to assume certain functions of community centers while others, on the contrary, tend to tune away and distance themselves from them.
Blending In
Superregional Centers Simulating Community Ones