Last year, 62,000 sqm of retail, i.e. shopping, parks were built in the Czech Republic. The number of new space increased by 41 percent year-on-year. In total, there were 17 shopping parks. Their area has thus increased to 1.2 million sqm and they account for almost a third of the total retail space in the Czech Republic. The largest amount of shopping park space is currently located in the Moravian-Silesian Region, with the largest amount per 1,000 inhabitants in the Olomouc Region. This results from an analysis by the real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield.
“Last year’s volume of completed retail park construction exceeded the long-term annual average by more than 30 percent and is the second highest annual volume in the last ten years, just after 2021, which was a record year. Last year’s high volume reflected deferred construction from the uncertain ‘covid’ years of 2020 and 2021, when a number of projects were put on hold,” said Jan Čížek, head of the retail parks team at Cushman & Wakefield.
According to Čížek, shopping park developers are able to react much faster to market developments and increased tenant demand for space than in traditional shopping centres. Another positive aspect is that the construction of a retail park usually takes up to 12 months, whereas a shopping centre takes two to three years. Developers then concentrate the construction of parks primarily in smaller towns of up to 10,000 inhabitants, where there is more demand for them.
The supply of modern retail space in the Czech Republic reached 3.93 million sqm at the end of 2023. Shopping parks, i.e. retail zones with several separate stores with their own entrances and shared parking, account for 31 per cent of this total. Traditional shopping centres account for about 67 per cent and the remaining two per cent are outlets. The share of retail parks in the total volume of modern retail space in the Czech Republic has increased by five percentage points over the last five years. The tenant mix in retail parks is primarily focused on daily necessities and consists mainly of retailers selling food, drugstores, electrical goods and household equipment.
The largest project completed last year was the expansion of the S1 Center Přerov retail park by 17,200 sqm, so the park now has over 29,000 sqm of retail space and 41 stores. This was followed by the construction of the OC Poříčí retail park in Blansko with 6,900 sqm of space and almost 20 stores. In the Moravian-Silesian Region, 12 percent of all Czech retail space is currently in shopping parks, while in the Central Bohemian Region the share is 11 percent.
87,200 sqm of space in shopping parks is currently under construction and more than 380,000 sqm is in various stages of preparation. If all planned projects are completed as planned, the retail park area could increase by more than 400,000 sqm by 2025, according to the analysis. Almost a third of the projects under construction are located in the Central Bohemia Region and a quarter in the South Bohemia Region.
Source: Cushman & Wakefield and CTK
Photo: S1 Center Přerov, Saller Group
