Vienna-headquartered investor-developer Immofinanz has unveiled plans to expand its Stop Shop retail park portfolio in Croatia, after acquiring the land to develop 22 new sites.
The plots, covering some 730,000 m2, were purchased for around €80 mln, to which Immofinanz will add another €170 mln for the development of the schemes.
Immofinanz said that its strategy was focusing on medium-sized cities to meet demand for neighbourhood centres. The new sites are in addition to the four retail parks it presently holds in Croatia.
Its current Croatian holdings include parks in Valpovo, Osijek, Ludbreg and Nasice with a combined total of nearly 21,000 m2, all of which were fully rented in 2021. The firm is expanding the Ludbreg site at the moment by roughly 3,000 m2, and this space – as well as a new retail park in Kastela with 7,000 m2 – will open in the first half of 2022.
Said Dietmar Reindl, chief operating officer of Immofinanz: 'Croatia is a promising market with a strong return to economic growth as well as rising disposable income and consumer confidence.
'We have held investments in this country for many years, including market entry with our Stop Shops in 2018. The feedback from local communities and our tenants has been very favourable.
'Many of our international retail tenants want to expand in Croatia – and our Stop Shop format is ideally suited for this growth due to the size of the cities and demand by the population for affordable supplies in a pleasant shopping atmosphere.'
The new retail parks will comprise over 190,000 m2 of rentable space. Construction as well as operations will include ESG-focused aspects, including photovoltaics for the production of renewable energy, charging for electric vehicles, and a plan to support biodiversity on the green areas surrounding the parks. The Stop Shops will be built with local Croatian firms, while the new retail properties will create up to 5,000 jobs over the medium-term.
Immofinanz was an early investor in retail parks, and Reindl said the firm recognised their crisis-resilient qualities for some time.
'We evaluate new locations very closely and take advantage of available market capacity. Besides, the Covid pandemic has again made it clear that retail parks with everyday convenience items, very good traffic connections and a diverse tenant mix are the clear winner and in strong demand by tenants as well as customers,' Reindl concluded.
Immofinanz’s standing Stop Shop portfolio includes 99 retail parks covering 750,000 m2 of retail space in ten countries.
