ekaterinburg and sverdlovsk region - Marchmont Capital Partners

Retail Parks
Igor Suhanov, General Director of Oboronsnabsbyt
Russia Adopting European
Retail Park Format
The growing number of not only national but also international retail
chains in Ekaterinburg means the city is narrowing the gap between itself
and Russia’s “big two”.
This is partly down to new trade formats
being introduced. The traditional Russian
univermag, or general shop, Russia’s
traditional version of the western
mall, is increasingly dwarfed by the appearance
of major shopping and entertainment
malls. This was kick-started in
autumn 2006 by the opening of the massive
MEGA mall, developed by Swedish
furniture giant IKEA. Meanwhile Vremya
(Time), a Russian group of firms, is developing
a chain of its Park House malls
in the city, while the first Urals retail
park, developed by our company, is due
in 2007. The project has raised considerable
interest since it is the Russia’s first
European-style retail park.
Retail parks are traditionally enclosed,
open space areas which house several
major – and usually multi-story - retailers
which share one, large car park. Often
retail parks, which are usually around
200,000 square meters in size, are dominated
by one major tenant which controls
70-90% of trading premises. They enjoy
lower costs than malls because they have
no need for public amenities such as lifts,
escalators and viewing galleries, necessary
givens which take up 30-40% of a
mall’s space but make no money. Retail
parks are also considerably cheaper to
build at 20-30% under average mall construction
costs.
While the concept is new in Russia
the retail park format is well established
in Europe, where developers have long
built major trade parks in city suburbs
rather than in the packed, historical or
otherwise ill-suited capital centers.
Oboronsnabsbyt develops and manages
projects relating to commercial real
estate. The group has acquired a 40,000
square meter site for the planned Urals
retail park, at the transport junction of
two major motorways (linking the city
with Tumen and Chelyabinsk) not far
from the city’s Koltzozo airport, with a
further 25,000 square meters allotted
for warehousing on the same site. The
project compliments city-wide plans in
Ekaterinburg to increase the amount of
warehousing space. The park’s eventual
tenants – expected to reach 300 firms
by 2010 - will include retailers dealing
in building and finished materials, furniture,
interior accessories, household
and garden goods.
Work on the first stage of the park
is due for completion in autumn 2007.
Initial plans are for eight regional and
national retailers, each with two-story
premises occupying 14,000 square meters
between them. 12 shops are already
open, occupying 50,000 square meters,
as are a car park and an A-class, 35,000
square meter logistic terminal. By 2010
the total area of the park is expected to
stretch to 200,000 square meters.
MARCHMONT Investment Guide to Russia 2007, vol. I, #2
107