Mitiska REIM, the investor in European convenience real estate, has launched Ninouter, a retail park with a CO2-neutral building in operation in the Belgian city of Ninove, located 30 km west of Brussels.

The new Mitiska retail park

The New Mitiska Retail Park

The new retail park has a gross leasable area (GLA) of 10,300 m2 and comprises six stores, food-anchored by Jumbo and Lidl supermarkets, with other tenants including JBC, Exterioo, JYSK and Molders. It has 360 parking spaces and covered bicycle stands.

Designed to achieve a 'Very Good' score on the BREEAM in-use scale, Ninouter incorporates a number of sustainability initiatives to give it the status of a CO2-neutral building in operation.

The entire roof area is covered by 2,500 solar panels which have the capacity to generate 1.2 MWp, equivalent to the electricity consumption of 300 families and leading to annual savings of more than 350 tonnes of CO2.

Charging points are offered for electric vehicles and LED lighting is used throughout the retail park, while rainwater is used by the shops and parking spaces are designed to be permeable so rainwater can be buffered.

Jan Du Bois, investment cirector of Mitiska REIM, said: 'We are proud to open another retail park with CO2-neutral credentials and to also bring new shopping infrastructure to the city of Ninove. As consumers have become more time-poor, they have also become more value-oriented in their shopping and are increasingly choosing retail parks for their daily convenience needs.

'We expect the combination of convenience, essential shopping and value for money offered by Ninouter to be very popular and expect to attract 1 million visitors annually to the retail park.'