In with the new

? Looking at the retail market as we approach the end of the year, we can see that it’s certainly far from boring. The sector is feeling the tightening noose of the Sunday trading ban and has been having to cope with the seemingly unstoppable growth of e-commerce, while there’s also been much investment in modern technology and new ideas for the business models of retail chains... in short, a lot has been happening! But perhaps even too much? If anybody needs a more comprehensive picture of what’s going on, I recommend the report by the contents partner of this supplement, Cushman & Wakefield, which gives us the current Polish retail market in a nutshell (‘A Golden Age for Consumers’). The interview with Jeff Alson, the head of CEE capital markets at C&W, provides us with the broader perspective of the entire sector across the CEE region. Investors might feel a little insecure at the moment, but his optimism certainly remains undimmed (‘Riding Out the E-Commerce Storm’). In his opinion, the market is simply going through a degree of structural change, a view that is attested to in the conversation with the COO of Atrium Real Estate, Scott Dwyer (‘Adapt and Urbanise’). Atrium has responded to the changing needs of consumers and fundamentally reshaped its property portfolio. The company already has several major redevelopment and expansion projects behind it, including Atrium Promenada, Atrium Targówek and Atrium Reduta (all in Warsaw). However, it’s not going to stop there. Further investment in centres in the capital is planned (including for Wars Sawa Junior). The competition, meanwhile, has not been sleeping. Since September another retail colossus in Warsaw, the Arkadia shopping centre, has been operating as Westfield Arkadia. The changes are not limited to the name of the mall, but are much more wide-ranging than that. In this issue, Arnaud Burlin of Unibail-Rodamco- Westfield tells us all about them (‘Westfield Reinvents Togetherness’). Investors outside Warsaw have not been idle either, as the retail park segment goes from strength to strength, and major players such as Immofinanz have already taken quite a sizeable chunk of it (‘Living the Change’).