Specialty shopping centres form a submarket that carries excellent prospects for future growth. IMMOFINANZ has been active in this rapidly developing segment for roughly ten years, and is the market leader in Austria with more than 150 centres. This formula for success has now been exported to Central and Eastern Europe. Following the acquisition of the STOP.SHOP. specialty shopping centre group in Hungary during 2005, work has been proceeding steadily on the development of a chain of centres in the most important markets of Central, Eastern and South-eastern Europe (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Ukraine).

Specialty shopping centres are mid-sized retail properties with a minimum area of 3,500 to 10,000 sqm, which are typically located at or near traffic crossroads in mid-sized cities. The development of these facilities is based on a high degree of standardisation, which covers both the design of the objects as well as the tenant mix. In contrast to shopping malls, there are no joint advertising or marketing activities and facility management is also less extensive. These lower costs allow the centre owner to offer substantially lower rents. For this reason, specialty shopping centres are attractive above all for retail chains in the middle and lower price segments. In addition, they are also able to benefit from the discounter boom.

Specialty shopping centres are generally “anonymous” in design, but IMMOEAST operates its facilities under a separate name with high brand recognition. Under the STOP.SHOP. name, which is becoming a strong brand, a total of 45 specialty shopping centres are currently under development throughout the entire region and 11 of these facilities have already opened. Beginning in 2007/08, a STOP.SHOP. will open every two to three weeks on average. Above and beyond this expansion programme, work has started on a further development phase that will involve the construction of 120 STOP.SHOP. specialty shopping centres by IMMOEAST in the coming years.