Shopping Centers Russia Декабрь 2021 Декабрь 2021 | Page 61

16 new retail facilities with a total leasable area of 486.9 thousand sq. M. Were opened in the regions. m. Top-3 large completed projects of the year include SEC Planeta in Perm (83 thousand sq. m. GLA), SEC Ramus Mall in Nizhnekamsk (78 thousand sq. m. GLA) and SEC VEER Mall in Yekaterinburg (76 thousand sq. M GLA).

Knight Frank analysts note that by the end of 2021 the vacancy rate in the shopping centers of the capital may reach 15%. According to experts, the growth in the share of vacant space is due to the optimization of outlets by retailers, faced with a strong negative impact of the pandemic. At the same time, the vacancy rate in most facilities opened in 2021 reaches 40%, which corresponds to the trend of recent years - the commissioning of shopping centers with a large share of free space and active filling during the first years of operation.

Layered cake

Many previously built shopping centers have planned reconceptions necessary to adapt to the interests of today's consumer. Shopping centers continue to move away from the image of a closed box with a standard set of tenants. “More and more attention is paid to the improvement and recreation areas, the creation of public spaces, the further increase in the share of cafes and restaurants, as well as the entertainment component, continues,” says Nadezhda Tsvetkova.

External factors in the form of coronavirus and restrictions, as well as changes in purchasing behavior have highlighted the long-standing stratification in the retail real estate market, at least in large cities. On the one hand, there are highly successful properties on the market that have felt the least impact of the crisis phenomena, demonstrate stable operational activity, high attendance, high-quality rotation of tenants for changing market conditions and consumer behavior of buyers.

“On the other hand, there are less successful facilities that have not coped with the pressure of the pandemic and economic changes in previous years and are forced to either radically transform existing concepts or consider changing their commercial function. We predict that this trend will only intensify in the future,” says Anna Nikandrova, partner at Colliers.

The commissioning of new retail space is shifting to places of concentration of residential buildings - both new as part of the multifunctional complex and in the existing residential areas of the city. The role of small-format shopping centers is increasing as centers of attraction for local audiences for making daily purchases and saving personal time. New places of high-quality leisure and remote work are emerging outside the center of Moscow. This trend has been talked about for a long time, it has only been outlined even more clearly by the pandemic, and now experts are talking about it even more confidently.

Another trend, which they continue to talk about, is the implementation of a trading function as part of transport hubs. For example, in the next couple of years in Moscow the shopping center "Skazka" (TPU "Rasskazovka"), the shopping center as part of the TPU "Seligerskaya" and the shopping center "Portal" as part of the TPU "Ryazanskaya" are announced for opening. Also, among the announced projects planned for implementation at a later date, there are trade functions at TPU Lukhmanovskaya-2, TPU Park Pobedy, developer GC Tashir, and shopping center at TPU Otrytoe Shosse of Pioneer Group.

Most of the new ongoing and announced retail projects are presented in the format of urban community centers, the average area of which is in the range of 10-30 thousand square meters. m of leasable area. Shopping centers are positioned as places for leisure, meetings and emotions. Accordingly, the share of social, cultural, educational, sports and recreational functions in the composition of shopping facilities is growing.