Shopping malls need to boost their leisure propositions, while retailers must enhance their omnichannel strategies, mentioned speakers during the retail panel of SEE Property Forum 2021, Property Forum's annual event in Bucharest. 

Polish company Scallier will open its second retail park in Romania on November 11 as part of its expansion strategy on the local market.

Patron Capital, the pan-European institutional investor focused on property-backed investments, and Trei Real Estate, an international developer and asset holder for residential and retail real estate, have formed a new 75:25 joint venture to develop and hold retail parks in Poland under the Vendo Park brand.

Gdańsk based developer EDS Retail Park has won the bidding to buy six Tesco stores, which it intends to convert into retail parks with a total of 29,000 sqm GLA.

The inauguration of the extension of Colosseum Mall in northern Bucharest was pushed back by spring 2022 due to the health crisis.  

The figures describing the performance of shopping centres that Cushman & Wakefield has available (primarily for small to medium-sized centres in Czech regions) show a positive trend. Following the full reopening of shops in shopping centres this May and June, both revenue and footfall were higher than the figures from the same period last year and the trend carried over to the summer holidays. Compared with 2020, July revenue grew by 3% and August revenue by 11%. Compared with the pre-crisis year 2019, July revenue was 2% lower, but in August it was almost 7% higher.

BIG Shopping Centers Ltd., the controlling shareholder (~95%) of BIG CEE, successfully raised NIS 205 million (approx. €55 million) by issuing secured bonds in the Israeli stock exchange by refinancing the following shopping centres: BIG Fashion Kragujevac, BIG Kruševac and BIG Fashion Outlet Inđija.

The commercial real estate market, together with many other economic areas, after being impacted heavily by the Covid pandemic, is undergoing recovery. These positive indicators are also mirrored in the retail real estate sector. Recent figures indicate that retail parks and convenience centres are recovering strongly as are discount shops, while large shopping centres are reporting increasing footfall levels, optimistic economic outlook; these are the key highlights from Q3 of the year. The analysis of the retail real estate sector was prepared by experts from BNP Paribas Real Estate.

The sector is seeing a recovery following the reopening of the economy. However, a change in the structure of retail formats continues. Increased developer activity will translate into over half a million sqm of new supply by the end of the year.

Nivy mall in Bratislava, a new shopping centre developed by HB Reavis that also includes the city’s new international bus terminal, has welcomed almost 330,000 visitors in the first week following the centre’s opening on 30 September.