For two decades, the Polish retail property market has changed beyond recognition. New tenants and commercial formats have appeared. The “drab blocks” have been replaced by modern shopping malls with impressive façades, increasingly daring arrangement of space and various forms of entertainment available. And what will surprise us in the future?
The first shopping centers arose in Poland in the early 1990’s as a result of the development of commerce, and hence the growing demand for high-quality trading areas. The special year was 1999, when eleven large commercial objects were opened. At that time, a hypermarket with one shopping alley and a large convenient parking lot was a substitute for modernity and novel Western European consumption culture. The huge hypermarket accounted for two thirds, and often even three quarters of the object area, whereas the mall was narrow and single, containing from 30 to 60 retail outlets. The exception was CH M1 in Warsaw with a double mall, as well as Reduta, Klif and Promenada – the only two-storey centers put into operation in 1999.
Gastronomy? Looking back, it can be said that it was practically non-existent – there were usually no more than five, and in the case of “supercenters” from eight to ten catering facilities concentrated in a small food court. At that time, it was enough for the tenants to wait in line for the premises, and for the Polish customer to be satisfied. Today, none of these objects arouses such emotions, except for those that have been significantly modernized – among these, CH Janki and CH Promenada deserve attention. Today, many older objects are facing a choice between two options – either extension and refurbishment, or change of function to offices or housing.
The time of one-storey commercial objects (so-called hypermarket-driven-malls) on the outskirts of the cities ended in Poland with the entry into the new millennium. The country was developing, the awareness of the consumers increased, new operators seeing the potential to build a network of their shops began to discover the Polish market. Polish brands were developing slowly and local entrepreneurs began to perceive shopping malls as a good place for scaling their business (e.g. Polish jewellery and cosmetic companies).
A time of multi-storey shopping malls located in the urban areas and city centers came. The precursors of the new format were the Best Mall Sadyba with the first Central-Eastern Europe 3D IMAX Cinema, the Mokotów Gallery with the first Bowling Center and the Games Lounge. It was a time of a specific race for size, number of shops and services – the point of honor for every developer at that time was to let at least 150 premises.
Entertainment zones with multi-screen cinemas appeared, contributing to the development of gastronomic offer and food court space. Gradually, the importance of the hypermarket for the shopping center was decreasing in favor of additional (non-commercial) facilities that attracted the customers and retained them in the object for a longer time.
The breakthrough for the development of the market was the accession of Poland to the European Union and the influx of infrastructure funds, which resulted in the perception of Poland as a reliable partner by foreign funders and translated into new commercial investments. Objects such as Arkadia (2004), Silesia City Center (2005), Manufaktura and Galeria Krakowska (2006), and finally Złote Tarasy and Galeria Bałtycka (2007), which still belong to the leading commercial buildings in Poland, were commissioned.
Another important impulse was the technological progress, which was a catalyst for dynamic development of e-commerce and noticeably influenced the purchasing habits and preferences. Customers can view the goods that they then buy online, or vice versa – collect the products previously ordered through shopping applications. This required a change in the approach to the design of customer experiences and mall management.
The today’s shopping centre in Poland has a city-forming function and activates the life of the local community. It is a place of meetings and experiencing positive emotions, shared meals in specially designed dining areas. What is important, gastronomy today is not a “filler” of the service tenant-mix, but a factor differentiating the operators of commercial complexes in the struggle for the customer.
The shopping center is also the place of new experiences and interesting events, from fashion shows, penny readings, dance courses, presentations of the latest computer games – and all this in a very interesting, well-designed environment with comfort zones and concierge services.
And what lies ahead? Probably with the increase in the purchasing power of consumers and the growing attractiveness of Poland among wealthy tourists (among others from Asia) we will see with time new luxury brands, which would be another important step in the development of the Polish commercial market.
The next generation shopping centre will be rather just a part of a larger multifunctional complex consisting of office buildings, apartments, hotels, medical facilities, recreational and sports complexes, food markets modeled on the traditional market places, food service areas. And all this in designer-arranged spaces and perhaps with the support of robots and augmented reality technology, which will move the customer experience into a completely different dimension.
Contributed by Piotr Pawłowski, General Director and Proxy at PP Development Sp. z o.o.
