McArthurGlen to build 5th designer outlet village in Italy

McArthurGlen is to open La Reggia Designer Outlet near Naples in February 2010. It will be the European outlet centre specialist's fifth designer outlet village in Italy.

La Reggia Designer Outlet near Naples, offering 26,000 m² of retail space and 140 shops on completion of Phase II, is one of Europe's biggest solar energy schemes in a retail development. Phase I of the EUR 120-mln designer outlet will provide 17,500 m² of retail space, with an additional 8,500 m² opening in the second phase.

The opening of the first phase of La Reggia will bring the total designer outlet retail space that McArthurGlen has developed and continues to operate in Italy to 111,500 m². La Reggia Designer Outlet is located 25 km from Naples, on the main A1 highway to Rome. The catchment area includes the more than five million inhabitants of the surrounding Campania region.

The architecture will reflect the Baroque style of the nearby Palace of Caserta, known in Italian as La Reggia di Caserta. La Reggia Designer Outlet has 10,000 m² of solar panels integrated into the roof, with the panels producing 30% of the centre's annual energy consumption.

Serravalle Designer Outlet, near Milan, which opened in 2000, was the first scheme developed by McArthurGlen in Italy. Serravalle is Europe's biggest designer outlet village, with 180 stores. McArthurGlen's three other designer outlet villages in Italy are Castel Romano Designer Outlet (near Rome), Barberino Designer Outlet (near Florence) and Veneto Designer Outlet (near Venice), all of which are currently being extended. Across the rest of Europe, McArthurGlen is also engaged in the second phase of Designer Outlet Berlin, the redevelopment of a scheme near Luxembourg, and new schemes in Athens and Neumuenster (near Hamburg).