ING RE sees growth in shopping mall refurbishments

Dutch property giant ING Real Estate said it sees shopping centre refurbishment becoming one of the major components of its retail development pipeline, adding to its current focus on major regeneration projects across Europe.

In a presentation at the Mapic retail property fair in Cannes, the company pointed out that it is already carrying out major refurbishment projects such as the Toison D’Or project in Brussels and De Opgang in Amsterdam, with the opening of De Opgang expected in December 2008. Last month, the company also reopened the Nisa Liberec shopping centre in the Czech Republic after three years of extensive redevelopment which saw the mall doubling its size to 50,000 m² and increasing the number of retail units from 70 to more than 160.

The focus on refurbishment is aimed at capitalising 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, ING RE said. 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, thus offering opportunities for refurbishment.

ING RE plans to rejuvenate many of these centres through redevelopment, creating a new identity and, in many cases, introducing a wide-ranging leisure offer, including cafés, cinemas, restaurants and hotels.

'All over Europe there are mature shopping centres 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,' said Menno Maas, CEO Development at ING RE. 'In an increasingly responsible society, it is no longer acceptable to ignore the many opportunities to rejuvenate these centers in favour of new development.'