Today shoppers go to retail centers not simple for the sake of making a purchase but in search of interesting leisure activities. For this reason entertainment zones have become one of the few ways for shopping centers to attract visitors. Svetlana Kuzmina spoke to the magazine CRE Retail about Western experience in creating entertainment zones at malls.
Entertainment zones have been increasingly expanding in newly developed shopping centers, occupying as much as 30-40% of the space in some new projects. At the same time, owners of existing commercial properties are undertaking reconstruction projects for the sole purpose of strengthening the entertainment component,” CRE Retail writes.
According to Svetlana Kuzmina, Director of Asset Management for AVICA Property Investors, the market is responding to the emergence of unique entertainment clusters. The entertainment factor is capable of increasing a retail center’s target audience not only through the attraction of people residing in the projects primary coverage area but also from other districts of the city.
DUBAI LEADS THE MARKET
The Dubai Mall in Dubai boasts a unique entertainment cluster which includes a multiplex theater, the Kidzania children’s entertainment center, a unique oceanarium (33,000 species of marine animals) and a large ice-skating rink. It primary competitor Mall of the Emirates has built an indoor ski resort called Dubai Ski. Some of the interesting entertainment clusters in the United States include the museum Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and Monster Mini Golf, a thematic entertainment center built around an 18-hole indoor glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course.
AVICA PROPERTY INVESTORS
AVICA Property Investors manages the assets of Romanov Property Holdings Fund (RPHF – 50% owned by RD Group). The investment fund’s portfolio includes the Romanov Dvor business center, two luxury class retail centers – Vremena Goda on Kutuzovsky Prospekt and Dream House in Barvikha – as well as the hypermarket OBI Borovskoye. The value of RPHF at the end of 2013 exceeded $1 billion.