Sonae draws up mall success checklist

International shopping centre specialist Sonae Sierra has presented a checklist at EXPO REAL to help evaluate whether a revitalisation of a mall in Germany will be a success or not.

Sonae Sierra and study partner, real estate consultancy GMA, said during a presentation in Munich on Tuesday that the market for the revitalisation of aging shopping centres is worth billions of euros as about 320 of the existing 420 malls in Germnay are more than 10 years old. However, until now there was no empirical study to show why some centres fail and others prosper. The pair established 40 criteria for success or failure based on a study of 100 malls characterised as needing renovation and repositioning.

The study found that almost all centres have severe concept weakness, said Thomas Binder, managing director of Sierra Germany. ‘Further, many of the problem properties are run without any professional shopping centre management.'

Lisbon-based Sonae Sierra operates four malls in Germany, including the Alexa on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. Alexa is majority owned by Union Investment. Sonae Sierra is also reworking a former Karstadt store in Solingen in a joint venture with MAB of the Netherlands.