Moscow captures four of the top 10 malls in Europe

Moscow is home to four of the top 10 shopping centres in Europe ranked by gross leasable area, CBRE has revealed.

CBRE said that each of the four largest Moscow shopping centres has impressive footfall, which can exceed 70,000-80,000 visitors on weekdays and 100,000-150,000 visitors on weekends. Three of the four top Moscow shopping centres date from before the onset of the global financial crisis in late 2007.

The largest shopping centre in Europe, according to CBRE's ranking, is Mega Belaya Dacha which was completed in 2006. The 222,000 m2 centre is part of the Mega chain of large-scale shopping and entertainment schemes developed by international company IKEA.

Mega Khimki, comprising 175,000 m2, is the second-largest centre in Moscow and the fifth largest in Europe. The next largest shopping centre in Moscow and eighth in Europe is Golden Babylon. The 169,000 m2 shopping centre was opened in November 2009 by a joint venture between Austria's Immofinanz and Russian company Patero. Immofinanz bought out its partner’s share in May 2012.

The next largest shopping centre in Europe is Mega Teplyi Stan. Ikea opened the 155,000 m2 centre in 2002 and subsequently opened a new mega store every two years thereafter.

Other significant developers in the Russian capital's retail arena include Tashir, Ten and Crocus Group. Activity peaked in 2008-2010, when five shopping malls were delivered to the Moscow market. Each scheme had a GLA of more than 100,000 m2.

CBRE said that large-scale projects in Moscow are still in focus, with 43% of all schemes in the construction stage belonging to shopping malls of regional and super-regional format. The most noteworthy schemes include Avia Park (231,000 m2), Columbus (140,000 m2, Vegas Crocus City (111,000 m2) and Zelenopark (100,000 m2).

There are no such large schemes under construction in Europe, with the exception of Turkey.

CBRE said that assuming all announced projects are delivered on time, Moscow can reach the European level of quality retail space penetration by 2016. 'Worsening macroeconomic conditions in Russia, as a result of both internal and external factors, is the only obstacle for this plan,' the property adviser added.

Click on the links below for CBRE's ranking.