Viva, Vivo!

The survey took two months to conduct but in the end the winner turned out to be Vivo! in Piła with an average score of 4.74. Second place went to Galeria Sfera in Bielsko-Biała and third, to Galeria Pestka in Poznań. The retail centres were rated by their tenants on a scale of -5 to 5 in a number of categories including location, rents/costs/fees, marketing and PR, tenant mix, management activity, the building (aesthetics and architecture) and signage. “We are honoured to have received this unique prize, because the distinction was awarded to us by our own tenants, with whom we in fact have co-created the Vivo! Piła shopping centre! Our main goal is to make our shopping centres as attractive as possible for our tenants and their clients, as well as to keep our tenant mix in line with the current trends on the market,” says Magdalena Kowalewska, the country manager for operations in Poland at Immofinanz.

Tenants’ assessment

What turned out to be of greatest importance to the respondents were the location and rents/costs. In both of these cases the Vivo! centre in Piła scored highly with an average of 4.87 for its location and 4.53 for its ease of access by car and public transportation while it scored 4.80 for its rental rates in relation to the size, type and location of the retail units within the mall. Vivo! also scored well when comparing the level of profit to the rental rate (4.93) as well as for the mall’s marketing fees (4.71) and service fees (4.64). The tenants also appreciated the centre for its marketing strategy and promotional campaigns, assessing their effectiveness at 4.87. “We have carefully analysed the results of how the tenants voted, which were published in Eurobuild magazine. We are particularly pleased by our high scores for the quality of the service we provide, the transparency of how we settle service charges and the marketing campaigns we run. We are also proud that our tenants have awarded us with the highest score for the number of customers that come to Vivo! Piła,” declares Magdalena Kowalewska. All the tenants surveyed replied that they would choose Vivo! Piła again as a location for one of their stores. “We are very pleased that we are in the Vivo Piła shopping centre. It is a modern, well managed and beautiful building. The centre is in a great location and has impressive footfall. What I would like to highlight is the great partnership we have with the shopping centre’s owner and manager. We can see through what they do that they care not only for the building but most of all for its customers. The shopping centre’s director has introduced many different amenities to the centre and organises marketing campaigns that do attract the crowds. This creates a great atmosphere,” said Diana Wrzeszcz, the manager of the Martes Sport store in Vivo! Piła.

First Vivo! in Poland

Piła was the debut for the Vivo! shopping centre brand in Poland. “Vivo! represents a new brand for the commercial real estate sector which we have positioned between the concept of our Stop.Shop retail parks, which has already become familiar, and our larger shopping centres,” announced Eduard Zehetner in 2014 at the opening of the centre when he was the CEO of Immofinanz. Now two more Vivo! centres have opened in Poland – in Stalowa Wola and Krosno. The Vivo! centre in Piła was based on the Galeria Piła project created by Rank Progress, which they sold to Immofinanz at the beginning of 2014. The building, which is next to the city’s bus and railway stations, was completed on February 14th. Its catchment area has over 70,000 potential customers and is well served by roads such as the national road 11 between Poznań and Kołobrzeg and 10 to Bydgoszcz. Over 70 tenants have leases in the 24,200 sqm building, including H&M, Top Secret, Ryłko, Swiss, Reserved, Cropp, House, Media Expert, Sinsay, Mohito, Medicine, a Honolulu play centre, a Calypso fitness club and Carrefour. A Helios cinema is also being developed on the southern side of the centre. It will occupy just over 1,000 sqm with four air-conditioned screens and 600 seats and will have its own entrance. As a result of the extension the leasable area of the centre is to increase to just under 25,300 sqm. ν

Vivo! Piła

Launch of construction work: 2013

Opened: September 2014

Area: 24,200 sqm

Leasable area: 70,000 sqm

Main tenants:
H&M, Top Secret, Ryłko, Swiss, Reserved, Cropp, House, Media Expert, Sinsay, Mohito, Medicine, Honolulu, Calypso, Carrefour

Manager: CBRE

Developer: Immofinanz/Rank Progress

Owner: Immofinanz