ING Real Estate sees growth in refurbishments
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At a briefing held today at MAPIC, ING Real Estate, the property investment, finance and development firm, unveiled the growing importance of shopping centre refurbishments to its development business in the mature markets of Europe.
The company revealed that, in addition to major regeneration projects – or “area development” schemes - the restructuring and refurbishment of existing stock will soon become one of the major components of its retail development pipeline.
As evidence of this focus, the company’s Nisa Liberec shopping centre in the Czech Republic officially re-opened last month after three years of extensive redevelopment and extension work. Other projects such as the Toison D’Or project in Brussels and De Opgang in Amsterdam are currently being refurbished with the topping out of De Opgang to be expected in December 2008.
The focus on refurbishment is to capitalise on a growing market opportunity driven by increased demand for retail space as a result of steady population growth and rising disposable income in Europe. Many centres, particularly in Western Europe, are ageing and no longer meet their full potential in terms of competing with other schemes to attract retailers and shoppers. At the same time, in Central Europe, the speed of expansion over the last few years has been to the detriment of the quality of these new centres and refurbishment and extension opportunities are present in most countries.
Due to its cross border knowledge and expertise, ING Real Estate is well positioned to realise the opportunity to rejuvenate many of these centres through re-development, creating a new identity for the centre and, in many cases, improving the shopper experience by introducing a wide ranging leisure offer, including cafés, cinemas, restaurants and hotels. ING Real Estate’s refurbishment track record goes back for a large number of years and includes centres like Galerie Saint Lambert in Liege – Belgium, the ICSC award winning Waasland Shopping Center in St. Niklaas - Belgium, Woensel in Eindhoven - the Netherlands and Midsummer Place in Milton Keynes - United Kingdom. At Nisa Liberec, the shopping centre has been completely refurbished by ING Real Estate, doubling its size to 50,000 m2 and increasing the number of retail units from 70 to more than 160.
Speaking about this opportunity, Menno Maas, CEO Development at ING Real Estate, commented: “All over Europe there are mature shopping centers that are nearing their ‘sell-by’ date and are no longer able to compete with the new breed of fully integrated shopping and lifestyle destinations. We have built our track record over the years but believe that now is the time that refurbishments and extensions will not only be part of the centre development but instead answer to a very specific market environment in which we find ourselves today.”
“In an increasingly responsible society, it is no longer acceptable to ignore the many opportunities to rejuvenate these centers in favor of new development. By utilizing our wide ranging cross-border expertise, we have demonstrated at Nisa Liberec how you can maintain and add value to existing shopping centers through redevelopment, and we look forward to accomplishing this many more times elsewhere.”