Trei Real Estate GmbH will be opening its 26th retail park under the Vendo Park brand in Poland. It is located in Oswiecim, a small town of around 40,000 residents in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship in southern Poland. This latest Vendo Park has a leasing area of around 5,300 square metres and is leased to seven retailers and a supermarket. In total, Trei invested c. €7.2 million in the property. The new retail park is the first in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship.

CBRE acted as an advisor to Patria Investiční společnost in the acquisition of a portfolio of two retail parks for the newly established Patria Logistics and Retail Fund from the Czech development group KPD. The two assets are the Ovčáry Retail Park in Kolín with a retail area of ​​8,950 square meters and tenants such as Lidl, Sinsay, Teta, Pepco, Tedi and Deichmann, and the Mohelnice Retail Park with an area of ​​approximately 2,750 square meters and long-term tenants, which are Mountfield and Jysk.

Romania is posting one of the biggest recoveries of non-food consumption in the European Union (EU) and retailers with online stores are set to benefit most from this growth, according to an analysis by real estate consultancy Colliers. 

By purchasing a 50% stake in a business partner, Fidurock has become the 100% owner of Retail Park Choceň on June 8, 2021. With this step, the company completed the acquisition, which began in 2018 with the purchase of 50% of building land. The construction itself began in April 2020 with the opening to the public taking place in December of the same year. 

LCP has signed a purchase contract for a retail park in Rawa Mazowiecka, located between Warsaw and Łódź. It offers over 2,700 sqm of GLA and 45 parking spaces. The size of the entire plot is over 5,200 sqm. Among the tenants are Kik, Dealz, Martes Sport and CCC.

A total of 23 retail park projects with a total area of almost 55,000 sqm were completed in the Czech Republic last year, with the volume of development exceeding a ten-year average. In effect, the aggregate area of all retail parks in the Czech Republic has exceeded 1 million sqm. Retail park development currently focuses on smaller towns with up to 40,000 inhabitants. The greatest volume of new development was in the Central Bohemian Region last year, according to an analysis by Cushman & Wakefield.

The retail park format was gaining ground before the pandemic and continues to grow despite it. Over the past 20 years, the share of retail parks in the entire pool of shopping facilities in the country has increased from 6% to 15% and now they occupy approximately 1.97 million sqm, according to CBRE data. Retail parks remain popular among investors, confirming their strong position, even in times of a pandemic. Their popularity is underpinned by their locality, concentration of stores providing basic needs in one place and a smaller number of customer contact points than in large centres. According to CBRE experts, the current trends indicate that by 2030 retail parks may constitute 28% of all shopping space in Poland.

Without a doubt, the pandemic has brought many changes for the retail market but many developers see this as a time for trailblazers. Christoph Andexlinger, Chief Operations Officer at SES Spar European Shopping Centers discussed with Property Forum the effects the pandemic had on the company’s operations and shared some details about future plans.

Spektrum shopping centre, CPI Property Group’s latest retail development in the Czech Republic, opened its doors on 25 March. Located in Čestlice, in Prague’s south-eastern agglomeration, Spektrum is a convenience-focused retail park comprising over 20 units and over 6,500 sqm of space.

Over 80% of the new retail space expected to be completed in 2021 will be in the form of retail parks, including smaller strip malls, highlighting a market shift towards proximity-based schemes or those with a smaller financial footprint for the developer, according to Colliers International Romania.