Fashion House Development secures St. Petersburg site (RU)

FASHION HOUSE Development (FHD) are taking the Outlet Centre offer into Russia and have their sights set on a number of locations. They have completed the acquisition of their site in Moscow they have just completed on their second site in St Petersburg.

Neil Thompson, CEO, FASHION HOUSE Development, explains: ‘Currently Russia has no factory outlets and yet there is the potential for at least 20 based on population, brand awareness and potential spend. So far we have secured two locations with Moscow due to open in Nov 2011 and St. Petersburg in 2012 and we have a feasibility studies being carried out on a further 11 sites.’

The St. Petersburg site is located South-West of the city limits on a major highway intersection allowing easy access from all main routes and near the Pulkovo airport. It is 37,000 sq m and will be home to 172 units, foodcourts, children’s play area and 1200 car parking spaces. It has a catchment of over 4.2 million within a 90 minute drive time.

Neil adds: ‘We partnered with GVA Sawyer Moscow to act as local project managers for our Moscow site and they also acted as a broker representing the land owner, Credor Management Company, on the St. Petersburg site.’

The Moscow site that has already been secured is North West of Moscow near the Sheremetyevo International airport on the main highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. It is 39,000 sq m and will be home to 193 units, 7 foodcourts, 2217 parking spaces and a children’s play area all themed with Moscow classic and traditional architecture. It has a catchment of over 8.3 million within a 90 minute drive time and is due to open in November 2011.

He adds: ‘This is a new and exciting marketplace that we feel is ready for the FASHION HOUSE branded Outlet offer. There is high brand awareness amongst consumers who have money to spend and extremely high demand from our current tenants wanting to move into this market.’

The FASHION HOUSE Outlet Centre portfolio currently includes three successful Outlet centres in Poland and one in Bucharest. A second Bucharest site currently in planning and the Moscow and St. Petersburg sites will be opened under the FASHION HOUSE Outlet Centre brand in 20 11 and 2012 respectively.

FHD is the leading developer in CEE and is an expert in emerging markets. A FASHION HOUSE Outlet Centre has won the EuropaProperty CEE Factory Outlet of the Year for the last two years running with FASHION HOUSE Outlet Centre Warsaw in 2008 and FASHION HOUSE Outlet Centre Sosnowiec in 2009. Two out of their four open Outlets ranked within the Top Ten Best Performing Outlet Centre in Europe 2009 and GVA Outlets, who manage and operate all FHD outlets, were tipped to be the rising stars of the Outlet sector in 2010 according to the ICSC Outlet Report 2009.

Magdus, June 2010