Which local shopping centers and retail parks are working well and which are failing? The latest survey among tenants of 157 shopping centers by the German consultant ecostra names three winners across Austria for the first time. But five locations clearly fall short, including four in Vienna.
For twelve years, ecostra has been investigating retailers, restaurateurs and service providers who run their businesses in a total of 98 shopping centers and shopping centers in the city center, as well as 59 retail parks. Criteria are how their turnover develops there, whether they plan additional locations and how they think the tenant mix fits.
“Lots of light and lots of shade” in Vienna
Things look particularly bad in Vienna. In addition to the ece in Kapfenberg, the ‘table cellar’ of the locations rated as least attractive includes Q19, Meiselmarkt, Citygate and Galleria, four inner-city centers in the federal capital. They have a score between 3 and 4, and these flop spots have been almost ‘glued’ for a long time, says Ecostra project manager Thomas Terlinden. They just can’t seem to improve tenant satisfaction, and the Galleria in Vienna 3 actually fell to last place.
This accumulation is noticeable, says Terlinden. “At the same time, there are also a number of Viennese centers such as Riverside, The Mall and others, which have been among the most successful Austrians for years. There is a lot of light and a lot of shade in the capital.” What the latecomers have in common is that they apparently have too few truly attractive tenants who attract customers to the centers. That’s why the others also complain about not enough audiences.
Hofer, Spar, dm, Nike and others outperform their competitors
From the point of view of retail professionals, a few surprisingly stand out among the desired customer magnets: Hofer is preferred by food discounters, and Spar is preferred by supermarkets. As a drugstore, DM is especially popular with Rituals perfumeries. In the fashion sector, retailers rate Zara higher than H&M, and when it comes to the question of whether Adidas or Nike is desirable as a neighbor, the American brand leads the way for two-thirds of respondents.
Although this could partly be due to the personal preferences of the survey participants, “but above all it reflects the expectation of which of the alternative companies would be most able to positively stimulate the shopping center and thus create synergies for their own business to create,” he adds. ecostra director Joachim Will. What counts is not necessarily the objective performance of a concept, but rather the attractiveness, awareness and positioning of a brand.
Three “good” locations
In addition to the cellar children, there are also excellently functioning shopping temples. For the first time in twelve years, three locations received the highest ‘good’ rating from tenants. As a serial winner in previous years, the Dornbirn exhibition park once again remained at the top, as did the dez in Innsbruck. The Euromarkt in Kapfenberg has moved up. The top 3 is followed by Riverside in Vienna, EZE Eisenstadt, Kaufpark Vösendorf, Europark Salzburg, Neukauf in Spittal/Drau, Infra Center Linz, Weberzeile in Ried/Innkreis, Murpark Graz, SEP Gmunden, Varena Vöcklabruck, eo center Oberwart, The Mall Vienna, BahnhofCity Wien West, Donautreff Ottensheim, FMZ Imst, Stadtgalerie Schwaz and BahnhofCity Wien Hauptbahnhof in the right group.
Due to a lack of staff, the majority want to shorten opening hours
What particularly worries retail managers is the lack of staff. Nearly 62 percent see this as their biggest challenge for the company. An almost equal majority sees shortening opening hours as a solution. “The lease agreements contain an obligation to open shopping centers. However, due to the lack of staff, several tenants can no longer fully fill these times and have to temporarily close their shop doors. Despite the contractual basis, center management has little say. If there are no staff there, the store is closed,” Will explains the misery.
The retail chains only want to expand if the handbrake is on. The retail chains surveyed are planning an average of only 2.5 new stores across Austria over the next twelve months. Last year there were 3.3 new vacancies. Locations in inner-city shopping streets are more sought after, while smaller local centers and ‘greenfield’ areas are less desirable. However, on average there are only 1.3 locations on a closure list, previously there were almost 2. Apparently the clean-up of the location networks after Corona etc. has largely been completed, Ecostra suspects.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
