Small is popular

The small shopping centre market still has much potential and it will keep on developing. According to our analysis, the residents of smaller towns want to have popular and well-liked brands available locally, rather than having to go on a shopping excursion to the nearest large city. Many more developers are now tapping into this potential than a few years ago. Due to this the supply of retail space is too high in some regions of Poland compared to the real demand. However, you need to remember that in smaller towns all it takes is to build one facility to reach saturation levels in terms of retail space. Nevertheless, there are some towns where there is still a shortage of small convenience centres. That is why we are planning to build a dozen or so of such projects in the next few years, all of which will operate under the Dekada name. These will include a number of shopping centres combined with bus stations, for example in Brodnica and Ciechanów, as well as other centres in Malbork, Łowicz and Nysa.

A well thought-out project in a good location should have no problems in terms of commercialisation. The retail areas of all the Dekada centres in operation are now almost 100 pct leased. The project in Brodnica, which is nearing completion and should be opened in the second half of the year, is also fully leased. Over half of the retail area of Dekada Malbork, which is currently being prepared for the construction phase, is now leased. The leasing of small shopping centres takes from around 12 to 24 months and always starts with the choice of the main grocery operator, whose area is usually predominant and generates most of the traffic (along with the drugstore).

Dekada Realty is a developer that not only builds its centres but also manages them. The experience, involvement and hard work of the managers of our facilities has resulted in the continuous growth of the turnover of both our tenants and the footfall in the Dekada shopping centres – at an average of a dozen or so per cent per year. Our centre in Kraków holds the record in this regard, as its financial results improved by more than 40 pct over 2013. And it was the popularity of Skierniewice Dekada that proved to be the decisive factor in our decision to extend the facility. According to a survey carried out for us by TNS OBOP in October 2013, 77 pct of the town’s residents want the centre and its offer to be extended to popular fashion brands, which confirms the strong investment potential of this shopping centre.