Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/58695
One bright spot for Spanish shopping centers: They are increasing their market share of all retail sales, from 13.5 percent in 2007 to 14.6 percent in 2010. Spain's retail sector is attractive, and big projects are increasingly favored." After 16 years of steady GDP growth, Spain's economy went into recession in 2008, and has yet to reemerge. Un- employment stands at 22.6 percent. The crisis has taken a toll on retail, with overall sales contracting more than 5 percent last year, according to Spain's National Institute of Statistics. Yet Marineda City is not the only retail project to open since the crisis began. It is one of nine shopping cen- ters that opened last year, account- ing for a total of more than 362,000 INVEST COS.' MARINEDA CITY square meters (3.9 million square feet) of GLA, according to Asociación Española de Centros Comerciales, Spain's mall trade group. Even in 2010, with the recession raging, four centers opened, representing a com- bined total of nearly 111,484 square meters of GLA. Marineda City, developed by In- vest Cos., accounts for roughly half the GLA built in Spain last year and has more than doubled the amount of retail space available in La Coruña. Besides the anchors, tenants include Primark's biggest store in Spain and Abercombie & Fitch's fifth Hollister store in the country, plus all the Indi- tex retail brands. The mall draws cus- tomers from a 190-kilometer radius, according to its developers. La Coruña, nicknamed Marineda after 19th-century writer Emilia Pardo Bazán wrote about her native city us- ing the fictitious Marineda name, boasts 270,000 residents by itself, but neighboring cities push the wider mar- ket up to 350,000. Roughly one-third of the mall's shoppers come from out- side La Coruña. "Our market goes well beyond [La] Coruña, with consumers from other Galician cities and even Portugal coming to shop," said Miguel del Río, Marineda City's general manager. "Since April [through October] we have received more than 7 million visitors," he said. "During the sum- mer up to 1 million people visit the mall monthly." But sales are not what they could be even so, Marineda City's execu- tives say. "Our country's situation is very difficult," said del Río. "The flow of shoppers is strong, the feedback has been very good, and sales are not bad, but we need to increase sales. The problem has been the economic environment, and not the retail offer, since we have the best fashion brands and strong entertainment tenants. 50 SCT / APRIL 2012 We are focused on stabilizing the proj- ect and positioning Marineda as Gali- cia's point of reference." The mixed-use project contains a 123-room hotel, a three-story office building and some freestanding stores. All are connected to the mall by a 14,000-square-meter plaza, and there are gardens, fountains and sculptures. Besides its two floors of retail, the mall has an entertainment level with restaurants, a cinema, a go-cart track, a miniature golf course and a children's play park, and three levels given over to parking. One bright spot for Spain's mall industry is that shopping centers, of which there were 534 as of the end of October, are increasing their market share of all retail sales, from 13.5 per- cent in 2007 to 14.6 percent in 2010, according to the Spanish shopping center association. The group reported that sales totaled €38.68 billion in 2010, up slightly from 2009 but still below the €40.55 billion in sales from shopping center stores during 2008. Despite continuing concerns about Europe's economy, at press time many in the Spanish shopping center indus- try are upbeat about 2012, noting that the coming year will see completion of the second phase of the expansion of Puerto Venecia, in Zaragoza. When the expansion is done, Puerto Venecia will be Spain's biggest mall, at 206,000 square meters of GLA. In addition, nine new retail real estate projects are slated to open, representing roughly 204,000 square meters of GLA in the aggregate. In all, between real estate sales and development, investors put some €1.35 billion into the retail sec- tor last year, the mall trade group says. "There are investors and devel- opers that are once more looking at Spain for medium-term projects," said de Arcos, "looking for that mar- ket hole or just a good [investment] opportunity." SCT