Loving Outlet Shopping - Value Retail News

COVER STORY 

Loving 

Outlet 

Shopping 

As consumers discover 

outlets, FOCs prosper 

Designer Outlet Berlin 

Plus: 

FOC sales defy the downturn 

Designer Outlet Berlin opens 

New phase 1 schemes announced 

GLOUCESTER 

QUAYS 

Updates on planned projects 

New tenant signings 

and much more…

STYLISH SOLUTION 

FOR EXCESS STOCK 

With a slow economy, when your 

customers are very careful with their 

spending, it is ever more important 

to have a good strategy for moving 

your excess stock. McArthurGlen is 

the outlet partner of choice for the 

top designer and fashion brands.We 

have 18 well-located villages across the 

UK and Europe, with over 70 million 

visitors annually. We recently opened 

theVeneto Designer Outlet near 

Venice, the Berlin Designer Outlet 

and the Salzburg Designer Outlet. 

We will soon open a new centre near 

Naples, and outlets are underway in 

Athens, Hamburg and other sites. 

To learn more about how we can 

help you elegantly and profitably 

clear your stock and increase cash 

flow, contactVictor Busser in 

London at +44 (0)20 7535 2300 

or leasing@mcarthurglen.com. 

Also, please visit us at MAPIC, 

November 18-20th 2009 in 

Cannes, France. 

www.mcarthurglengroup.com 

ARMANI COLLECTIONS 

BRIONI 

BULGARI 

BURBERRY 

CALVIN KLEIN 

COSTUME NATIONAL 

DIESEL 

DOLCE & GABBANA 

ELLE MACPHERSON 

INTIMATES 

GAP 

GUESS 

HUGO BOSS 

JIL SANDER 

KAREN MILLEN 

LA PERLA 

LACOSTE 

LK BENNETT 

MARGARET HOWELL 

MARNI 

MISSONI 

MOLTON BROWN 

MULBERRY 

NICOLE FARHI 

NIKE 

PAUL SMITH 

POLO RALPH LAUREN 

PRADA 

ROBERTO CAVALLI 

SERGIO ROSSI 

TED BAKER 

TOMMY HILFIGER 

VALENTINO 

VERSACE

PAGE 4 

STAFF 

PETER ShARPE 

ICSC ChaIrman 

JAAP GiLLiS 

ICSC ChaIrman, EUrOPEan 

advISOry bOard 

MiChAEL P. KERChEVAL 

ICSC PrESIdEnt and CEO 

RUDOLPh E. MiLiAN, SCSM, SCMD 

ICSC SEnIOr vP 

iCSC EUROPE 

London, +44 20 7976 3100 

icsc.europe@icsc.org 

iCSC/iOJ 

2519 n. mcmullen booth rd. 

Suite 510-356 

Clearwater, FL 33761 

+1 727 781 7557 

LiNDA hUMPhERS 

Editor in Chief ext. 3 

lhumphers@icsc.org 

RANDY GDOViN 

art director ext. 4 

rgdovin@icsc.org 

KAREN KNOBELOCh 

advertising Prod. mgr. ext. 2 

kknobeloch@icsc.org 

SALLY STEPhENSON 

Senior advertising Executive 

+1 847 835 1617 

Fax: +1 847 835 5196 

sstephenson@icsc.org 

International Outlet Journal is a publication for the 

non-U.S. factory outlet industry. Copyright © 2009 

PAGE 12 

PAGE 24 

CONTENTS 

Vol. 5 No. 4 Fall 2009 

InsIde 

4 What downturn? FOC sales, traffic soar 

9 Top brands: Who are they? 

10 Industry veteran John Drummond dies 

12 Designer Outlet Berlin opens 

14 Gloucester Quays opens 

16 Phase 1 schemes march toward opening 

18 New FOCs planned in France, Italy, Serbia 

19 Planned outlet centers chart 

19 Hornsea: Was inexperience the real culprit? 

20 GVA launches retail academy for tenants 

20 FOCs reach tenants through the Internet 

22 MCG attracts shoppers with culture 

23 News Notes 

24 Leasing Notes 

26 WTIM: Research helps all boats float 

Fall 2009 InternatIOnal Outlet JOurnal 3

COVER STORY 

FOCs countercyclical? 

Proof’s in the numbers 

By LiNDA hUMPhERS 

Editor in Chief 

T 

he European outlet sector is 

hungry for numbers. Not a week 

goes by that IOJ doesn’t get a request 

from readers for data on turnover, footfall, 

occupancy, rents and siting strategies. And 

lately, the big question has been whether 

outlets really are countercyclical to a down 

economy, or as Jayson Eagon of Henderson 

Global Investors prefers to put it, whether 

outlets are the defensive asset class. 

Comparison with high street and other 

shopping center sectors would seem to say 

“yes” to both, and anecdotally, FOCs are 

on the sweetheart train. But when an outlet 

center such as Hornsea Freeport does fall 

on hard times, the media are quick to put 

all FOCs under the spotlight. So, there’s 

nothing like actual numbers to convince the 

skeptical and educate the uninformed. 

The most helpful data would come 

directly from the brands themselves, those 

brands that operate outlet retail chains. 

But in Europe, as in the U.S., brands are 

4 InternatIOnal Outlet JOurnal Fall 2009 

reluctant – and even prohibited – from 

sharing this information. We understand 

the reasons. Brands are using the outlet 

distribution channel for a variety of purposes 

and often the numbers aren’t broken 

out by sector. In some cases, the outlet 

channel is a good place to hide mistakes; 

in other cases, the outlet channel is so 

profitable that it makes wholesale divisions 

shake in their boots. 

In an effort to supply more of this 

much-needed data to the industry, three 

German researchers have issued an extraordinarily 

in-depth performance report culled 

from the retail community’s experience with 

58 outlet centers in 16 European countries. 

It’s no surprise that although the authors 

contacted 150 brands about participating 

in the survey, just 19 responded. Still, the 

data appears credible and the authors have 

generously allowed IOJ to sift through 150 

pages of charts and analyses to share details 

with our readers. The first story based on 

this information appears on page 9. 

European outlet developers are also 

cautious about sharing numbers. Why give 

away secrets to success that have been 

earned through years of hard work, experience 

and capital expenditure? 

But IOJ put out a call for total, comparable 

outlet-center sales and footfall 

progress and we are pleased to report 

that we have received data on 28 centers 

from nine operators: Chester Properties, 

Dubai Outlet Mall, GVA Grimley Outlet 

Services, Henderson Global Investors, 

ING Real Estate, Land Securities, Resolution 

Property, Stable International and 

Value Retail. 

henderson Global Investors/ 

mcarthurGlen Group 

Reporting on seven centers, all acquired 

from McArthurGlen Group, which 

still operates them: In Austria, Parndorf 

Designer Outlet; in France, Roubaix Designer 

Outlet and Troyes Designer Outlet; 

in Italy, Barberino Designer Outlet, Castel 

Romano Designer Outlet and Serravalle 

Designer Outlet; in The Netherlands, 

(Continued on page 6) 

Serravalle Designer Outlet Village near Milan has helped push the Henderson Global Investors/McArthurGlen seven-center 

portfolio to a 10 percent increase in YTD sales.

know-how 

Nobody knows Outlets better 

�� 

�� 

�� 

�� 

For more information please contact: 

Brendon O’Reilly, 

Director, GVA Grimley Ltd. 

+44 (0)7831 381 405 

brendon.o’reilly@gvagrimley.co.uk 

www.gvagrimley.co.uk/outlets

COVER STORY 

(Continued from page 4) 

Roermond Designer Outlet; 

Data is year-to-date from 

January 2009 through August 

2009. 

Turnover (sales): as of 

August 2009, the seven centers 

are showing a portfoliowide 

increase of 10 percent 

compared to sales for the 

same period 2008. Year-todate 

2009 sales have seen 

positive growth of 6 percent 

to 8 percent. Henderson 

Global Investors asset 

manager Jayson Eagan says 

the increase means “people 

really are changing their 

shopping habits.” 

Footfall in the portfolio: YTD the 

portfolio has seen a 4 percent increase in 

footfall, with most coming from Northern 

Europe. “We have also seen a slight 

increase in dwell time,” Eagan says. 

Vacancy: the portfolio’s vacancy currently 

sits at 3.8 percent (96.2 percent 

occupancy). 

Occupancy costs: The Fund’s occupancy 

cost (rent plus service charge as 

a percent of turnover) currently sits at 

11 percent, which Eagan says “is below 

the 15 percent mark that our European 

research team are comfortable with.” 

Rents: 95 percent of the Fund’s leases 


Fashion House, Fashion Arena & Premier Outlets Centers 

Footfall and Sales for june & july 2009 compared to june & july 2008 

Comparable Footfall Comparable Sales 

Jun-09 Jul-09 Jun-09 Jul-09 

Fashion house Outlet Centre 31% 22% 37% 29% 

Warsaw 


Sosnowiec 


Gdansk 

Fashion Arena Outlet Center 44% 31% 51% 28% 

Prague 

Premier Outlets Center 25% 30% 47% 64% 

denmark 

The five centers total 740,280 sf (70,035 m2 ) 

are turnover based, with a cap, Eagan explains: 

“Each lease’s percentage-rent provision 

is different, ranging from 6 percent to 

12 percent on the turnover they achieve. 

But generally speaking, rents rise when 

turnover rises. Base rents are adjusted by 

the consumer price index or an amount 

equal to 80 percent to 90 percent of the 

previous year’s turnover rent, whichever is 

higher.” 

value retail 

According to Frank Blanchette, group 

retail and marketing director for Value Retail 

Plc, sales performance growth across 

the developer’s nine villages has remained 

Value Retail’s Kildare Village near Dublin has defied the local economy with a YTD 

increase in sales of 12 percent and an increase in footfall of 20 percent. 

Source: GVA Grimley Outlet Services 

solid. Comparable sales/turnover through 

June 2009 grew 66 percent against the 

first six months of last year and all of the 

nine villages grew faster than their city 

benchmark, he says. 

“Despite continued, aggressive, competing 

markdowns at full-price stores,” 

he says, “through the second quarter 

and into the summer trading period the 

villages posted strong second quarter 

increases in footfall (+22 percent), comparative 

sales (+11 percent) and spend 

per visitor. 

“Tourism spend during the summer 

trading period has accelerated this 

growth,” Blanchette says, pointing out 

that YTD 2009 Tax Refunded Sales 

recorded by Global Refund at Value Retail 

villages are up 51 percent compared 

to 2008. 

Most significant is the increase in tax 

refunds for sales from the shoppers 

from the Middle East, (+122 percent, 

more than doubling last year’s levels) 

and from China (+80 percent and 

representing 23 percent of the total). 

Tax refunds from shoppers from SE 

Asia (+67 percent), Hong Kong (+93 

percent) and Russia (+36 percent) also 

enjoyed steady growth. 

Kildare Village, near Dublin, continues 

to swim strongly against the local economy 

with sales for the first six months of 

2009 up by over 12 percent and footfall by 

20 percent. 

Ingolstadt Village, near Munich is 

recording strong YTD footfall (+27 

percent) and sales increases (+30 percent) 

driven by an increasing awareness of the 

village among its target market and the 

recent arrival of two dozen new brands, 

Blanchette says. 

(Continued on page 8)

THE NINE CHIC OUTLET SHOPPING ® 

VILLAGES OF EUROPE 

BICESTER VILLAGE – LONDON LA VALLÉE VILLAGE – PARIS FIDENZA VILLAGE – MILAN 

LAS ROZAS VILLAGE – MADRID LA ROCA VILLAGE – BARCELONA MAASMECHELEN VILLAGE – BRUSSELS / DÜSSELDORF 

INGOLSTADT VILLAGE – MUNICH WERTHEIM VILLAGE – FRANKFURT KILDARE VILLAGE – DUBLIN 

POLO RALPH LAUREN, VERSACE, SALVATORE FERRAGAMO, DIOR, CALVIN KLEIN, BURBERRY, PAUL SMITH, BALLY, GIVENCHY, 

MULBERRY, HUGO BOSS, LORO PIANA, ARMANI, KENZO, JIMMY CHOO, DIESEL, MAX MARA, DUNHILL, TAG HEUER, LOEWE, 

TOMMY HILFIGER, D&G, CAROLINA HERRERA, TOD’S, ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA, FAÇONNABLE, DKNY, CELINE, WOLFORD, SMYTHSON, 

ANYA HINDMARCH, MARNI, ALEXANDER MCQUEEN, LUELLA, FURLA, TEMPERLEY LONDON AND MANY OTHER LEADING 

BRANDS HAVE DISCOVERED EUROPE’S EXCLUSIVE OUTLET SHOPPING VILLAGES CREATED AND SERVED BY VALUE RETAIL 

RUN BY RETAILERS AND SERVING RETAILERS 

19 BERKELEY STREET, LONDON W1J 8ED, ENGLAND +44 (0)1869 323 757 WWW.VALUERETAIL.COM

COVER STORY 

(Continued from page 6) 

He adds that Value Retail drew praise 

from the International Key Accounts 

Portfolio of Global Refund, which follows 

the world’s most prestigious brands. 

Pier Francesco Nervini, the association’s 

VP said in a report that while some 

luxury brands have been challenged by 

the current economic climate: “The 

outstanding plus-50 percent comparable 

YTD sales growth of the Chic Outlet 

Shopping Villages across Europe, managed 

by Value Retail, where so many 

of the luxury brands are represented, 

confirms that luxury is still in fashion, 

especially at such irresistible prices.” 

Stable International 

Stable international’s eight-year-old 

Batavia Stad Fashion Outlet in The Netherlands 

added 6,000 m2 of GLA this 

year, bringing the center’s total to 26,248 

m2 . The opening of the third phase and 

the ensuing publicity resulted in healthy 

increases in comparable turnover and 

footfall: 

l Turnover after phase 3 opening: + 

30 percent 

l Overall turnover: +6 percent 

l Footfall: +10 percent 

Batavia Stad Fashion Outlet continues 

to be a catalyst for development in 

the Lelystad area. The first phase of a 

400-unit apartment complex has been 

completed, along with the new full-price 

shopping venue Lelystad City Centre. 

Design meetings have begun for a 

fourth phase at Batavia Stad Fashion 

Outlet. 

n n n 

Dalton Park (owned by ING Real 

Estate Development UK and managed 

by DTZ) continues to buck the general 

retail trend with increasingly strong sales 

performance and growing visitor levels. 

An aggressive marketing program at the 

160,000-sf center in Murton, England, 

saw catchment within 90 minutes drive 

time rise from target 25 percent to 31 

percent. Half-year results ending June 

2009 show a significant increase despite 

the general economic downturn: 

l Overall sales: +10 percent 

l Footfall: +6 percent 

l Spend per head +4.2 percent 

n n n 

Through this summer, comp sales at 

the 1.2 million-sf Dubai Outlet Mall 


Stable international attributes turnover increases at Batavia Stad Fashion Outlet in 

the Netherlands to the opening of its third phase earlier this year. 

increased 15 percent and footfall grew 20 

percent compared to the same period in 

2008. The categories that have performed 

the best during the period are upscale apparel, 

optical and sunglasses, and sportswear. 

“The increases can be related to more 

people turning to value shopping during 

the current recession, increased market 

awareness and mall marketing and PR 

activities,” says Vishal Mahajan, director. 

“And our retailers conducted better 

in-store offers and promotions this year. 

However, we are still up against widespread 

discounts in other malls in Dubai 

because of the downturn in the global 

economy.” 

n n n 

Land Securities reports that YTD sales 

for the 324,030-sf Gunwharf Quays in 

Portsmouth are up 8 percent over 2008. 

At the developer’s 320,000-sf Galleria 

Outlet Centre in Hatfield, England, 

turnover is up 1.6 percent and footfall is 

up 2.7 percent. Average spend is up 4 

percent over last year, but in 2008, average 

spend had increased by 26 percent over 

2007. 

n n n 

Resolution Property reports that the 

200,000-sf Park Avenue Fashion Outlet 

in Bilbao, Spain has reported a sales 

increase of 25 percent compared to the 

same period in 2008 and a footfall increase 

of 10 percent for the first quarter 

of 2009. 

n n n 

Chester Properties reports that the 

115,000-sf Springfields Outlet Shopping 

& Festival Gardens in Spalding, 

England, has seen a 35 percent increase 

in footfall YTD through August. c 

Call for turnover data 

iOJ welcomes comparable sales/ 

turnover and footfall data from any 

European/UK outlet center, as well 

as suggestions for improving the 

reporting. 

Please send your center/portfolio 

GLA, comparable sales/turnover 

and footfall data for the 3rd quarter 

2009 to IOJ Editor in Chief Linda 

Humphers at lhumphers@icsc.org. 

Further information on the performance 

of merchandise categories 

and center/portfolio occupancy 

would also be appreciated, as well 

as comments on why your center/ 

portfolio performed as it did. 

The deadline for reporting on 3rd 

Quarter 2009, which will be in the 

Winter 2010 IOJ, is 16 November.

Chart No. 2 

FOC PERFORMaNCE 

Where the brands are, 

and where they’re from 

Probably any avid factory outlet 

shopper could say with high 

certainty and little consternation 

which brands are found most often in 

FOCs, either in their own mono-brand 

stores or in multi-brand distributors’ 

stores. But three German researchers 

have come up with a definitive list of 

the 15 brands with the most penetration 

in the most typical European outlet 

centers. 

The research is included in the in-depth, 

150-page Factory Outlet Centre Performance- 

European Report 2009 by Sven Buchsteiner, 

senior consultant of retail consulting & 

research, CB Richard Ellis; Katharina 

Waldher, consultancy coordinator-retail 

consulting & research, CB Richard Ellis; 

and Joachim Will, CEO Ecostra. 

Graph No. 1 is based on a total of 

56 factory outlet centers and the 2,500 

brands found in those FOCs. The 

analysis considered only brands found in 

at least 10 centers. Although the analysis 

concentrates on branded stores, there 

are a few shops-in-shop and off-pricers 

included. 

One interesting point is that sports and 

casual brands, such as Nike, Levi’s, Puma, 

Adidas and Reebok are represented in 

most locations in their own mono-brand 

stores. Also, the brands with the most 

penetration aren’t actually the ones with 

the highest price points. 

As graph No. 2 shows, nine of the top 

25 brands in outlet centers are from the 

U.S. Possibly the American origin of the 

FOC industry has led to U.S. companies 

having a higher comfort level with the 

concept. U.S. chains also appear to have the 

strongest international brand awareness. 

The strongest French and Italian brands 

aren’t yet typical FOC tenants, as most of 

their representation is in high streets offering 

luxury goods. For this reason, past 

season inventory is much smaller than that 

of mass market brands, thus the need for 

the outlet channel is lower. 

Additionally, luxury brands usually 

focus on two to four seasonal lines, compared 

to as many as 12 lines per year for 

casualwear brands such as Esprit, S. Oliver 

or Zara. c 

15 brands with highest FOC penetration* 

*Based on analysis of 56 centers in 16 countries 

that have been operating for at least two years 

Chart No. 1 

Source: CBRE Ecostra 2009 

Top brands by countries of origin 

Chart No. 2 

Source: CBRE Ecostra 2009 


GlOBal PEOPlE 

Former halogen 

Exec forms new 

P.R. agency 

Dan innes, co-founder and former 

board director at public relations 

firm Halogen, has launched Innesco, 

a property PR and marketing business. 

London-based Innesco continues 

to work with Henderson 

Global Investors’ European Outlet 

Mall Fund, liaising closely with the 

McArthurGlen team across the nineoutlet 

portfolio. 

Other property clients include 

Ivanhoe Cambridge, Paul Whight’s 

Cadena, The Wellcome Trust, Insite 

Asset Management and MGPA. 

With more than 15-years experience, 

Innes has acted for numerous 

property clients including ING Real 

Estate, Land Securities, Stanhope 

and British Land. He is chairman 

of the British Council of Shopping 

Centres’ New Generation Committee 

and an active member of the ICSC. 

Joining Innes in the new company 

are Christina Sandkühler as senior 

account manager and Ben Cooper as 

account manager. Sandkühler has 

six years marketing and PR experience 

and will work on accounts 

including Henderson, Ivanhoe 

Cambridge’s St. Enoch shopping 

center in Glasgow, and Cadena’s 

new Retail Estate Fund. Cooper is a 

former Retail Week journalist who 

will handle retail-sector accounts. 

McArthurGlen makes 

two key appointments 

McArthurGlen Europe has appointed 

Eric Decouvelaere as managing 

director, Southern Europe, and 

Geoff Nidd as country manager in 

France and Belgium. 

Decouvelaere was previously 

regional director of Northern Europe 

for McArthurGlen. In his new position, 

he oversees the company’s 

four designer outlet villages in Italy, 

including Serravalle Designer Outlet, 

as well as two outlet villages in France 

(Troyes Designer Outlet and Roubaix 

Designer Outlet) and one in Belgium, 


UK outlet veteran 

john drummond dies 

By LiNDA hUMPhERS 


The British outlet industry lost one 

of its pioneers and true characters 

in July. As director of the Guinea 

Group, John Drummond was an unflagging 

supporter of factory 

outlet retailing and the driving 

force behind Junction One, 

the 200,000-sf outlet center 

he opened in 2004 in Antrim, 

Northern Ireland. 

Mr. Drummond founded 

The Guinea Group in 1983 

with his friend and business 

partner John Jones, who became 

the firm’s financial director. 

The company specialized 

in retail development throughout the UK, 

initially concentrating on prime highstreet 

locations in small towns such as 

Inverness, Dumfries, Penzance and High 

Wycombe, becoming especially fond of 

listed buildings. 

Shopping centers in medium-sized 

towns followed, and by 1993 the Group 

had focused on factory outlet and offprice 

formats, both in new build and 

redevelopments. The group became asset 

managers and joint owners of Clacton 

Factory Shopping Village in Clacton-on- 

Sea, The Galleries in Aldershot, Callendar 

Square in Falkirk, and Junction One. 

Mr. Drummond was in the middle of 

redeveloping the former K Village in 

Cumbria, England, when he died July 13. 

Through his vision, the 24,000-sf outlet 

center that opened in 1995 was being 

transformed into the €113 million Riverside 

Place, a mixed-use development set 

to open in October 2010. That project, 

which friends say was Mr. Drummond’s 

baby, has been absorbed by CUSP, which 

was Guinea Group’s financial partner on 

Factory Shopping Messancy. 

Decouvelaere will also oversee the 

leasing and management of two new 

designer outlet schemes: the 20,000m 

2 first phase in Naples and the 

21,000-m 2 phase one in Athens. Both 

projects are set to open in 2010. 

Decouvelaere joined McArthurGlen 

John Drummond 

Junction One and Riverside. 

Mr. Drummond was one of life’s 

characters, a dynamo, an entrepreneur, a 

deal maker who once lived in Hong Kong. 

According to friends, he had suffered from 

heart trouble for many years, but typically, 

he held a leasing meeting for Riverside 

Place during his last stay in the hospital. 

At his funeral in Edinburgh, 

Mr. Drummond was 

remembered by John Jones 

for borrowing his new car one 

afternoon and returning a few 

hours later, “bounding into my 

office with a big grin and that 

hearty laugh and pronouncing, 

‘the good news is I’m OK.’” 

Not surprisingly, the Guinea 

name derived from a West End 

bar & grill that became a second 

office on many evenings. Mr. Drummond’s 

passions were retail, property, cars, 

Harley-Davidsons and shooting. Mr. Jones 

said he gradually noticed a pattern to the 

Scottish locations the company was developing 

– Dumfries, Stranraer, Kirkcaldy and 

Falkirk – all well-known for their plentiful 

supply of wild fowl and pheasants. 

“John loved shopping center developments 

and he always believed the 

Americans were the leaders,” Mr. Jones 

said. “So he got as many of the team as 

possible over to the States for study tours 

so we could all learn together. He always 

had a great team ethic and that is still in 

existence today. He truly believed quality 

would see the test of time and his attention 

to detail was second to none.” 

In choosing music to play while the 

mourners left the funeral, Mr. Jones 

said he and Mr. Drummond’s companion 

Marion selected “the one that John 

would have wanted and summed him up 

perfectly.” 

The song was “Bat Out of Hell,” sung 

by Meat Loaf. c 

in August 2005 as retail director, overseeing 

the company’s retail strategy 

and retail operations. Prior to joining 

McArthurGlen, Decouvelaere had positions 

with Harrods and Printemps. 

Nidd retains his current role as 

General Manager for Troyes Designer 

Outlet and Roubaix Designer Outlet. c

Building on 

strong brands 

BATAVIA STAD 

FASHION OUTLET 

WIEDEMAR 

FASHION OUTLET 

�� 

© Stable International Development BV, Hardwareweg 26, 3821 BM Amersfoort, Netherlands 

+31 (0)33 - 450 40 30 www.stable.nl info@stable.nl 

MONTABAUR 

FASHION OUTLET

CENTRE OPENING 

henderson, McG 

relaunch D.O. Berlin 


A struggling center 

is revitalized and 

transformed into 

an outlet village. 

By STEPhANiE KRAMER 

Berlin Correspondent 

Shoppers turned out in droves 

and in the rain on June 18 for the 

much-anticipated opening of Designer 

Outlet Berlin. 

Just 30 minutes by car from the German 

capital the new shopping village is 

a €100 million redevelopment of the old 

B5 outlet scheme that struggled from the 

day it opened in 2000. Acquired in April 

2006 by Henderson’s Global Outlet Mall 

Fund, the new owner and its development 

The transformation of an outlet mall named for a road into the light, bright, treelined 

Designer Outlet Berlin took three years to accomplish. 

partner McArthurGlen immediately set 

to work on revitalizing the site on the B5 

motorway. 

Phase 1 of the two-stage redevelopment 

is 9,754 m 2 , and construction and 

leasing have already begun on the 6,746m 

2 phase 2. Completion of the second 

phase, set for autumn 2010, will bring the 

center to 16,500 m 2 . 

Comparisons with the previous 

center are inevitable for a while, but 

according to Henrik Madsen, managing 

director of McArthurGlen for the 

UK and Northern Europe, there is “no 

comparison between the two projects.” 

Referring to the B5 center, he said, 

“They had some great brands, but not 

all. The current project is well led, well 

promoted and well organized. If we’ve 

got the brands the customers want, they 

will come.” 

Phase 1 of Designer Outlet Berlin includes 

retailers such as Strenesse, Tommy 

Hilfiger, Nike, Rene Lizard, Levi’s, Adidas, 

Replay and Fossil. 

Jayson Egan, head of asset management 

at Henderson Global Investors, sees 

the changing mood among retailers in 

Europe, where outlet centers have been 

slower to catch on than in the U. S. 

“Retailers are generally skeptical of the 

unknown,” he explains, “but now they understand 

outlet centers and have grasped 

the positive aspects of the business.” 

Henderson owns nine outlet centers 

operated by McArthurGlen, the largest 

developer, owner and manager of 

outlet villages in Europe. McArthurGlen 

helped launch the outlet village concept 

in Europe in 1995 and operates 17 centers 

in continental Europe and the U.K. 

with total sales in 2008 reaching nearly 

€2 billion. 

Despite years of trying, Designer 

Outlet Berlin is McArthurGlen’s first 

center in Germany, although 85 percent 

of the shoppers coming to its scheme in 

Roermond, Holland, are German. That

Weeks after its June opening, Designer Outlet Berlin was still attracting 5,000 visitors a day looking for their favorite brands, 

including Adidas, Fossil, Miss Sixty and Replay. 

center, which opened in 2001, posted 

sales growth of more than 10 percent 

last year. 

The mayor of Wustermark, Bernd 

Drees, has called the new center’s 16th 

Century styling a “village within a village.” 

The overall look is consistent with McArthurGlen 

schemes, reflecting the local 

culture and architecture, but also the tight 

restrictions that hampered the previous 

project. 

In 2005, after McArthurGlen announced 

its interest in taking over the 

project, a settlement was reached in the 

legal dispute surrounding planning. To 

accommodate restrictions on allowable 

retail space, the esteemed architect 

Moritz Kock proposed a design consisting 

of two separate areas, a north and 

a south section, which are joined by a 

tree-lined square. The plans were accepted 

and the project was allowed to 

proceed. Kock died earlier this year in 

an airplane crash. 

Shoppers looking for a pleasant outing 

will find Designer Outlet Berlin the place 

to go. Individual storefronts open onto 

winding brick sidewalks, with trees and 

park benches lining the walkway, inviting 

weary shoppers to stop and rest in the 

fresh air. At least three restaurants are in 

the planning, and several corner cafes offer 

indoor and outdoor seating. 

Nearly 6 million people live within 90 

minutes of the center. Since its opening, 

the center has seen an average of 5,000 

visitors daily. Though Berlin has been hard 

hit by unemployment, tourism there is still 

doing well. In fact, Berlin is Germany’s 

No. 1 tourist destination, attracting more 

than 7.5 million visitors a year. 

DESiGNER OUTLET BERLiN TENANT LiST 

Adidas 

Camel Act 

CK Jeans 

Crocs 

Daniel Hechter 

Ecko Unltd. 

Estella 

Fossil 

Geox 

Gold Dock 

Häagen Dazs 

Hallhuber 

Home & Cook 

Jacques Heim 

K.I.D.S. 

Kunert 

Lego 

Levi’s 

Lloyd 

Mango 

This year, with elaborate celebrations 

marking the 20th anniversary of the fall 

of the Berlin Wall, even more tourists are 

expected. And McArthurGlen expects 

tourism to continue to grow in the city 

whose motto is “poor but sexy.” 

“Berlin will always have a special connotation,” 

Madsen says. 

Local shoppers are drawn to the center, 

too, in search of quality at a discount. 

Bernd Drees put it plainly: Local shoppers 

are looking to buy high-quality goods, he 

said, “but with a small wallet.” c 

Marc O’Polo 

Marc Picard 

MEXX 

Miss Sixty 

Möve 

Nike 

Olymp 

René Lezard 

Replay 

Seidensticker 

San Francisco Coffee 

Company 

St. Emile 

Strenesse 

Sunglass Time 

Tom Tailor 

Tommy Hilfiger 

Villeroy & Boch 


CENTRE OPENING 

Let the boon begin: 

Gloucester Quays opens 

By Patience Kramer 

Contributing Writer 

With the opening of Gloucester 

Quays Designer Outlet in May, 

the city of Gloucester, located 

in the southwest of England near the M5 

and A40, pushed back hard on the dampening 

impact of the global recession. 

The project – 10 years in the making 

– is set to revitalize the docklands area 

of the historic city and provide a longawaited 

shopping experience with such favourite 

outlet tenants as Marks & Spencer, 

Next, Gap, Austin Reed, Hawes & Curtis, 

Melka and De Keyser London. 

The outlet center is part of the overall 

60-acre, £400 million Gloucester Quays 

development, which includes 150,000 m 2 

(1.6 million sf ) of retail GLA. It is one 

of the largest mixed-use waterside redevelopments 

in the UK, similar in scope 

to Land Securities’ Gunwharf Quays in 

Portsmouth. 

More than 15,000 visitors attended 

opening day in May. The 10-day 

grand opening featured acrobats flying 

beneath the scheme’s gull-wing roof, 

“Gloucester Has Talent” auditions, the 

Miss Gloucester final, and a three-day 

Tall Ships festival. 

The center opened with 40 stores, with 

an additional 16 opening in the following 

weeks. Gloucester Quays is a joint venture 

of Peel Holdings and British Waterways. 

Built to revitalize the docklands area of 

the historic city, the center is the first of 

seven sites in Gloucester earmarked for 

a £1 billion makeover. A four-star hotel, 

supermarket, bars and restaurants are also 

planned for The Quays. 

For Lindsey Ashworth, Peel Holdings 

development director, the center is the 

culmination of 10 years of hard work. “It 

was 1999 when I started this scheme and 

at the time I didn’t think it was possible,” 

Ashworth says. “Over the last 12 months 

it has never ceased to amaze me how good 

it looks. It will be a turning point for the 

future of Gloucester. It will become the 

epicenter for shopping and leisure.” 

The development is considered a 


Part of the £400 million Gloucester Quays regeneration, the 220,000-sf Designer 

Outlet portion opened in May with 40 outlet stores and another 15 ready to launch. 

major boon to the city of Gloucester. 

Mark Owen, chairman of the Federation 

of Small Businesses and Marketing 

Gloucester, predicts that as a result of the 

development “Gloucester will become a 

shopping destination for the whole south 

west...This as a fantastic opportunity to 

attract new business.” 

“We all agree Gloucester is in need 

of regeneration especially around the 

Docks,” Franco Muccini, director of 

GOUCESTER QUAYS TENANT LiST 

All Wellan Good 

Antler 

Austin Reed 

Cadbury 

Caffe Nero 

Calvin Klein Jeans 

Calvin Klein Underwear 

Chapelle Jewellery 

Costa Coffee 

Cotton Traders 

Daniel Footwear 

De Keyser London 

Denby 

Event Jewellery 

Feraud 

Gap Outlet 

Green & Pleasant 

Gloucester Quays Designer Outlet 

observes. “Without a doubt we will put 

Gloucester on the map.” 

Gloucester is readily accessible via the M5 

and A40 motorways and by rail is less than 

two hours from London and only 45 minutes 

from Bristol. In addition to center parking 

availability, there is also a park-and-ride 

service to Gloucester Quays that operates 

every 12 minutes between the Waterwells 

and St. Oswalds park-and-ride sites. c 

Hawes & Curtis 

Helly Hansen 

Home Curtains & Bedding 

Hush Puppies 

Iceberg 

Jeff Banks 

Jovani 

L.K. Bennett 

Lakeland Leather 

Le Creuset 

Mandarina Duck 

Marks & Spencer Outlet 

Melka 

Mountain Warehouse 

Music Trade Outlet 

Musto 

Next 

Next Clearance 

Osprey London 

Past Times 

Pasty Presto 

Pavers Shoes 

Quba & Co 

Regatta 

Rock Couture 

Roman Originals 

Suits You 

Sunglass Time 

Tog 24 

Trespass 

The White Company 

Wonderbra 

The Works

PlaNNED PROJET UPDaTES 

Construction 

set for Stable’s 

German schemes 

STABLE iNTERNATiONAL, developer 

of Batavia Stad Outlet Shopping in 

Lelystad, The Netherlands, is committed to 

extending its outlet business in Germany, 

which currently has only six outlet centres. 

Earlier this year Stable was granted building 

permits for two outlet centers: Wiedemar 

Fashion Outlet (close to Leipzig) in April 

and Montabaur Fashion Outlet in March. 

Wiedemar Fashion Outlet is near Leipzig, 

home to such international companies as 

BMW, DHL, Porsche and Amazon. 

The site is on the heavily travelled A9 

Munich-Berlin Motorway with optimal accessibility 

via the Wiedemar exit. Leipzig 

Airport is nearby, and the major cities 

of Leipzig, Dresden and Potsdam are all 

within 30 to 60 minutes drive time. 

The 16,000-m2 center features sleek, 

modern architecture and a distinct colour 

scheme, with most of the stores indoors 

to ensure comfortable year-round shopping. 

Porta, the famous German furniture 

store, has confirmed that it will also 

totally refurbish its store opposite Wiedemar 

Fashion Outlet to further enhance 

the look and feel of this superb location. 

Construction of Wiedemar Fashion 

Outlet is scheduled to start in spring 2010 

PhASE 1 UPDATES 

with opening of the set for spring 2011. 

Montabaur Fashion Outlet, in the 

federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz with 4 

million residents, is between the densely 

populated Rhein-Ruhr and Rhein-Main. 


The market has strong development potential 

because of the high-speed rail and 

A3 Motorway connection, and because 

more than 7 million live within a 90-minute 

drive of the planned project. 

The A3 is one of the most important 

north-south motorways in Germany, with 

an exit leading directly to the railway station 

and to the Montabaur Fashion Outlet site. 

In 2002 Montabaur became linked via the 

high-speed rail to both Cologne and Frankfurt. 

Construction of the 13,500-m 2 center 

is scheduled to begin in spring or summer 

2010 and open in summer 2011. 

Kees Woltering, Stable’s co-owner, said in 

a company newsletter that partnerships with 

German companies are key to being able to 

move quickly on outlet development there. 

“Good financing alone is not enough,” 

Woltering said. “It is essential that Stable 

The four-level, 15,000-m2 Sofia Outlet Center will open October 25 more than 85 

percent leased with brands including Adidas, Benetton, Diesel, JOOP and Mango. 

Montabaur Fashion Outlet (above) and Wiedemar Fashion Outlet are the two outlet 

projects that Stable International plans to open in Germany in 2011. 

work with strong partners, which also makes 

financing a lot easier to find. This also provides 

us with more German knowledge and 

confidence from the financing parties.” 

Woltering noted that few Dutch developers 

have been successful in Germany, 

which he attributes to similarities in 

language and law. “People are quick to 

assume that if something works in The 

Netherlands, it must be the same in Germany, 

he said.” 

Sofia Outlet Center 

opens 29th October 

BULGARiA’S SOFiA Outlet Center will be 

85 percent leased for its October 29 grand 

opening, according to GVA Grimley Outlet 

Services, which is handling leasing, marketing 

and management of the project. 

The 15,500-m2 enclosed mall will have 

four floors, including two upper levels of 

retail with a food court and coffee shops, 

and a subterranean car park with 520 

spaces. There will be over 90 outlet stores 

ranging from 35 m 2 to 620 m 2 , comprising 

more than 60 brands, including Adidas, 

Benetton, Champion, Diesel, ECCO, 

Geox, JOOP, Levi’s, Mango, Motivi, Nike, 

Pierre Cardin, Puma, Rip Curl, Rollmann, 

Sisley, Tommy Hilfiger and Van Laack. 

Sofia Outlet Center is part of an established 

retail development between the city 

centre and the ring road, with easy access 

from the entire city. The outlet center is 

next to Technomarket and METRO and 

opposite the EXPO Centre. The catchment 

includes 2.2 million people within a 90minute 

drive and 2.7 million within 2 hours. 

Sofia-based Sofia Outlet Center 

EOOD is the project’s developer.

Cittá Sant’Angelo 

Opens September 24th 

Cittá Sant’Angelo Village, scheduled 

to open on September 24, is 

more than 70 percent leased with 

such tenants as Valentino Fashion 

group, Guess, Calvin Klein, Puma, 

Rifle, Baldinini, Lindt Chocolates 

and Guru. 

The 19,000-m 2 center is surrounded 

by seaside resorts along 

the Adriatic Coast, the ski resorts of 

Gran Sasso and Maiella, and Abruzzo 

National Park. 

The area, visible from the A14 

motorway, is close to the Pescara 

Nord-Cittá Sant’Angelo exit. The site 

can draw shoppers from the 3 million 

residents of Central and Eastern 

Italy who live less than an hour away 

and from the significant number of 

tourists who visit the Adriatic Coast. 

More than 30 million vehicles pass 

the site every year. 

Promos is handling leasing for 

the project, which was developed 

by EuropInvest and owned by Cittá 

Sant’ Angelo S.p.A. c 

Toulouse center to open in 2010 

PARiS-BASED ADVANTAiL is making 

progress on its Moulin de Nailloux 

Village near Toulouse. The project’s 

Cittá Sant’Angelo, seen above in photos taken in July, was set to open September 24 th 

more than 70 percent leased with tenants including Valentino, Guess and Calvin Klein; 

Promos handles leasing for the project, which is being developed by EuropInvest. 

22,850-m 2 phase 1 is planned to open 

in October 2010, followed by an 8,100m 

2 phase 2 opening in May 2012. 

When Advantil’s Moulin de Nailloux Village near Toulouse opens in 2010, its tenancy will 

include 70 percent international brands and 30 percent French brands. 

The Moulin de Nailloux site is only 

20 minutes from Toulouse, the largest 

city in southwest France with 1.2 million 

inhabitants and a dynamic economy. 

When completed, the outlet center will 

be the largest in France. The 

site is also easily accessible from 

highways A61 and A66, on which 

16.5 million vehicles travel annually. 

Some 2 million visitors a 

year are attracted to the Midi- 

Pyrénées region for its thermal 

baths, ski resorts and rich history. 

They book more than 10 million 

room nights annually. 

The center’s catchment also 

includes 2.4 million residents 

within a 90-minute drive. The 

center’s tenancy will be 70 percent 

international brands and 30 

percent French, plus restaurants 

and cafes. 

Advantail is developing Moulin 

de Nailloux for owner Sanoux 

Sci. c 


NEW PlaNNED PROJETS 

Premium to develop 

Sicilia Outlet Village 

SiCiLiA OUTLET ViLLAGE is scheduled 

to open in March 2010. the project is 

being developed by Milan-based Premium 

Retail in Agira (Enna), in the heart of the 

island’s lakes and castles district. 

Located at the foot of the highest 

provincial capital in Italy, at the Dittaino 

junction on the Palermo-Catania (A19) 

motorway, Sicilia Outlet Village will be 

developed in two phases. 

Phase 1 will comprise 25,000 m 2 of 

GLA, followed by a 6,000-m 2 phase 2. The 

center will be served by a vast 2,200-space 

parking lot, much of it shaded. The centre’s 

architecture reflects the region’s Sicilian 

Baroque period, with enhancements that 

include ceramics and mosaics rendered by 

the artisans and masters of Caltagirone. 

Like a true village, the design includes 

charming Sicilian restaurants, pastry shops, 

ice cream parlours and cafés set among 

flower beds, shade trees and pergolas. 

Sicilia Outlet Village also will feature 

areas dedicated to recreation for families 

and children, tourist and information 

services and community plazas designed 

to host cultural events and concerts. In 

addition to designer outlets, the center’s 

tenancy will include shops displaying Sicilian 

craftsmanship, foods and wines. 

Sicilia Outlet Village is strategically 

located at the geographic center of the 

island, allowing for fast and easy access 

from all the major urban centers in Sicily: 

20 minutes from Caltanissetta, 30 minutes 

from Catania, 60 minutes from Agrigento 

and Taormina and 90 minutes from Palermo. 

In addition to the A19, the ordinary 

road network and the railways will 

guarantee access to and from the center, 

ensuring that it can be reached in a short 

time from any direction and generating a 

catchment area of some 4 million people 

within a 90-minute radius. 

The province of Enna sees more than 1.5 

million tourists each year, attracted by the 

artistic heritage that includes the Villa Romana 

del Casale in Piazza Armerina, named 

a World Heritage property by UNESCO. 

Premium Retail, which was founded in 

2008 by Stefano Stroppiana and the Percassi 

Group, handles the design, development, 

marketing and operation of large luxury 

retail properties, including such formats as 

designer outlets, fashion malls, retail parks, 

theme shopping centers, green shopping 

centers, luxury malls and other innovative 

multi-use distribution channels. 


Sicilia Outlet Village, being developed by Premium Retail, is located in the center of 

the island with easy access to urban centers as well as cultural sites. 

Promos, irgenre 

plan new center 

near Salerno 

iTALiAN RETAiL DEVELOPERS Irgenre 

and Promos announced recently the 

planned development of a Cilento Outlet 

Village, to open in Eboli, in the Campania 

Region, close to Salerno. 

The €80 million scheme, to be funded by 

Irgenre and managed, marketed and leased 

by Promos, will be constructed in two 

phases. The 18,000-m 2 phase 1 will comprise 

90 shops and 2,500 parking spaces. A 

7,000-m 2 phase 2 will follow, bringing the 

total project to 25,000 m 2 and 125 tenants. 

Construction is already in progress, with 

the opening scheduled for yearend 2010 or 

early 2011. 

MAB/Neinver plan 

honfleur center 

iN PARTNERShiP with MAB Development, 

Neinver is planning to develop its 

first factory outlet center in France. According 

to Jorge Sánchez Mera, who has 

been Neinver’s corporate retail director 

since 2003, the planned scheme is in Honfleur, 

in Normandy, close to the beach. 

“France is difficult,” Mera says, “but 

now we are in the running with McArthur- 

Glen and Value Retail because we have 

relationships with more than 600 brands 

across Europe. The value concept now has 

acceptance and momentum throughout 

Europe. Our centers are doing better than 

ever – double digit increases – so we are 

more aggressively marketing and leasing 

our concepts.” 

With its portfolio of outlet centers in 

Poland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Germany, 

Neinver is quite comfortable branching 

into the unchartered waters of France 

with an 18,000-m 2 outlet center. 

“We believe in becoming locals in each 

market,” Mera says. “In Poland, 60 of our 

staff of 60 are Polish; in Italy, 40 of our 

staff of 50 are Italian; in Spain, 90 percent 

of 180 people are Spanish; in Portugal, 100 

percent; in Germany, 100 percent. Keeping 

the local flavor is essential.” 

Honfleur, The Style Outlets will open in 

Honfleur, France in spring 2011. 

Site found for first 

Serbian scheme 

GVA GRiMLEY Outlet Services will lease 

and operate what could be Serbia’s first 

outlet centre. The 30,000-m2 scheme 

will be in Indija, on a highly visible site on 

the E75 highway between Serbia’s capital 

of Belgrade and its second city, Novi Sad. 

Scheduled to open in the autumn of 2010, 

the center has a catchment of 3.5 million 

people within a 30 minute drive. 

“We’ve opened up new markets for high 

quality outlet centers throughout Central 

and Eastern Europe over the past six 

years,” said Brendon O’Reilly, executive 

director of GVA Grimley Outlet Services. 

“This opportunity in the Republic of Serbia 

is as exciting as they come. It’s a beautiful 

development in a massive, highly accessible 

plot in the middle of all the people in 

a country that doesn’t have enough retail 

real estate, especially in Belgrade.” 

Economic growth in the CEE territories 

continues, O’Reilly said, pointing out 

that Serbia’s economy grew by 6 percent 

in 2008. c

By Linda humphers 


W 

hen the owners of the 

20-year-old Hornsea Freeport 

Shopping Village took themselves 

and the center into administration 

in June, the event seemed to send shock 

waves throughout the traditional side of 

retail real estate. 

Outlet industry veterans, however, just 

shook their heads. 

The Hornsea owners, a group of Manchester 

lawyers who acquired the scheme 

for their pension fund from Freeport in 

March 2005, blamed the recession for 

poor sales and dropping occupancy at 

the East Yorkshire scheme. But industry 

insiders say the problem is more likely 

the ownership’s inexperience with outlet 

retailing. And, they say, Hornsea Freeport 

isn’t indicative of the industry as a whole 

when many centers and portfolios are 

enjoying their best year ever (see page 4). 

“We see a clear trend of non-operator 

centers failing when professionally managed 

centers are booming,” says Brendon 

O’Reilly, director of GVA Grimley Outlet 

Services, which operates outlet centers 

in Poland, Denmark, Czech Republic, 

Bulgaria and Romania. “We track every 

outlet center in Europe and we’re seeing 

double-digit growth across all those with 

professional operators running them.” 

O’Reilly says that with high street basically 

in “sale” mode half the year, outlet 

centers with inexperienced leadership are 

simply allowing retailers to sell goods at 

pricing near or equal to full price. 

“The inexperienced owners don’t 

understand that outlets must be differentiated 

from full-price,” he says. “Nor do 

they know how to bring in management 

principals and procedures that would attract 

more shoppers to their centers and 

help their tenants increase sales. Tenants 

then blame the landlords; landlords blame 

the tenants, and implosion occurs.” 

Authors Sven Buchsteiner, Katharina 

Waldher and Joachim Will say in their 

PHaSE 1 PlaNS 

Hornsea insolvency filled with lessons 

2009 FOC Performance Report, “The 

professionalism of the operator with 

regard to management and leasing is an 

essential factor for the success of an FOC, 

because FOCs are more managementintensive 

than shopping centers.” 

Hornsea Freeport was likely a victim, 

O’Reilly says, of the maturing of the UK 

outlet sector over the last two decades. 

As the sector developed, older centers, 

sometimes less productive, are spun off 

by their original owners. New investors 

enter the picture, but they often have little 

understanding of the industry’s quirks. 

This worries O’Reilly. 

“More tenants are producing madefor-outlet 

product,” he says, “and more 

off-price retailers are taking up space 

within centers. These components will 

dilute the differential between traditional 

shopping centers and outlet centers in the 

eyes of the consumers. Outlet specialists 

have to embrace the issues facing them 

and influence the investor-owners to act 

accordingly.” c 

20 Planned European Phase 1 Outlet Centers 

Opening 2010 and 2011 

CENTER CiTY COUNTRY DEVELOPER / OPERATOR OPENiNG 

Le Village des Alpes nimes (bellegarde) France bergerac Estates Limited/ 

rohleder Lumby retail 

2010 

Moulin de Nailloux toulouse (nailloux) France Sanoux Sci /advantail 2010 

Athens Designer Outlet athens (yalou) Greece mcarthurGlen Europea 2010 

Roncade Outlet Gallery venice (treviso) Italy Lefim S.p.a. 2010 

La Reggia Designer Outlet naples (marcianise) Italy mcarthurGlen Europe 2010 

Pisa Outlet Village Pisa Italy Promos 2010 

Norwegian Outlet vestby norway norwegian Outlet 2010 

FACTORY Krakow Krakow Poland neinver 2010 

FACTORY Warsaw Annopol Warsaw Poland neinver 2010 

Timisoara Outlet Village timisoara romania Promos 2010 

Ljubljana Outlet Village Ljubljana Slovenia Promos 2010 

FACTORY La Coruna Culleredo (La Coruna) Spain neinver 2010 

Riverside Place Kendal, Cumbria UK Kendal riverside Ltd./ 

rohleder Lumby retail 

2010 

Freeport Outlet Village, Le Cannet nice (Le Cannet des marures) France Freeport 2011 

Alsace international Outlet Strasburg (roppenheim) France Freeport 2011 

honfleur The Style Outlets honfleur France mab development/ neinver 2011 

Neumuenster Designer Outlet hamburg (neumuenster) Germany mcarthurGlen Europe 2011 

Montabaur Fashion Outlet Frankfurt (montabaur) Germany Stable International 2011 

Gronau Fashion Outlet Gronau Germany Stable International 2011 

Wiedemar Fashion Outlet Leipzig (Wiedemar) Germany Stable International 2011 

Source: VRN 2009 Global Outlet Project Directory 


OPERaTIONS 

Gva outlet division launches 

retail academy at Fh in Poland 

GVA Grimley Outlet Services 

(GVA OS) recently launched the 

Retail Academy in Fashion House 

Outlets in Warsaw, Gdansk and Sosnowiec, 

Poland, and in Premier Outlet Centre 

in Budapest. The program is an outgrowth 

of GVA’s philosophy that retail is 

a rewarding career and that retail managers 

and teams should have the benefit of 

appropriate training. 

The Retail Academy offers tenants a 

series of workshops designed to help 

outlet retailers provide customers with an 

enhanced shopping experience. Experts 

have been carefully selected to lead each 

The first stop for today’s outlet 

shoppers is often the Web. To make 

sure that their second stop is an 

outlet center, marketers are either stepping 

up the quality of their existing Internet 

sites or launching entirely new ones. 

McArthurGlen Group recently introduced 

a series of seven regional Web sites 

designed to attract new customers to its 

outlets. Each of the centers will have its 

own Web site with content relevant to its 

location. The first new site went live last 

summer at York Designer Outlet (www. 

yorkdesigneroutlet.com). Other sites went 

online in the following weeks. All the sites 

include a personal shopping section, a 

“stylist’s picks” section, and opportunities 

to take advantage of the McArthurGlen 

“Love Rewards” loyalty programme. 

n n n 

Fashion house Outlet Centers’ Web 

sites (www.fashionhouse.pl), which already 

have drawn 2.5 million visitors, since 

inception, have undergone a makeover 

that promises to deliver an enhanced user 

experience. Subpages direct shoppers to 

additional promotions in selected shops 

at each of three Fashion House centers 

(with interactive maps for each center): 

Sosnowiec, Warszaw, and Gdansk. The 

redesign also offers a virtual press room 

and is available in Polish and English. 

“There are no borders on the Internet,” 

says Katarzyna Czapran, marketing manager 

at Fashion House Outlet Center in Gdansk. 


workshop. The first workshop in the series 

is titled “Becoming Excellent” and focuses 

on delivering excellent customer service. 

The workshop places the responsibility 

for developing a service culture directly 

on the managers. 

“Recognizing what good customer service 

is, rewarding it when it is practiced, 

and coaching the staff to improve when 

it is not, are key responsibilities of an 

effective manager,” says Anna Jones, head 

of retail for GVA OS. “With so much 

competition out there, service can make 

the difference. If we coach our tenants 

to give their customers a delightful shop- 

“By keeping up with new technology, we 

can reach every place in the world with the 

information about Fashion House.” 

n n n 

iNG Real Estate’s 160,000-sf Dalton Park 

in northeast England recently launched a 

Web site (www.dalton-park.co.uk) that promises 

visitors they will be “the first to know” 

about the center’s events and special offers. 

The site also includes a section called 

“Kid’s Stuff,” where children can download 

pictures to colour and print. 

Dalton Park says it is the first shopping 

center in the region to participate in social 

networking, offering Facebook and Twitter 

sections on its Web site. 

“It’s a great way to find out what 

people feel, want and need so that we can 

respond effectively,” says Heather Scott, 

Dalton Park’s marketing director. c 

ping experience, a GVA-operated center 

can become renowned for excellence. 

This is our vision.” 

Training consultant Andrew Morris 

delivered the first workshop. Morris has 

more than 15 years of retail experience, 

from high street to department stores 

and premium brands. He has an extensive 

background motivating staffs from 

around the world. 

“Through illustrations and stories, I want 

people to become aware of what makes the 

difference and become conscious of what is 

mediocre service and what creates customer 

delight,” Morris explains. c 

Outlet centers reel in shoppers via Web pages 

Understanding that many shoppers 

are also computer-savvy has driven outlet 

landlords to develop appealing Web sites 

for their centers.

McaRTHURGlEN 

Outlet villages become 

family event centres 

McArthurGlen uses 

culture and education 

to attract families 

and drive footfall 

The 5th Annual Serravalle Outlet 

Jazz Festival was held August 5-16 at 

McArthurGlen’s Serravalle Designer 

Outlet Village near Milan. Among the 

21 acts performing under the stars was 

Manhattan Transfer, which went on to 

play at two other McArthurGlen Italian 

centers: Veneto Designer Outlet Village 

near Venice and Barberino Designer 

Outlet Village near Florence. The music 

at the new Veneto center’s Fashion & Live 

Music Festival focused on R&B. 

Shops and restaurants at all three outlet 

villages stayed open until midnight during 

the music festivals. 

n n n 

At McArthurGlen’s Castel Romano Designer 

Outlet Village near Rome, Stan the 

dinosaur showed up to do a little shopping. 

Stan is a life-sized T-Rex dinosaur 

replica created by the Black Hills Institute 

of Geographical Research in the U.S. He 

is 40 feet (13 metres) long and 12 feet (4 

metres) high at the hips. 

To celebrate Stan’s arrival, Castel 

Romano held competitions to win a trip 

to New York’s American Museum of 

Natural History. The centre also offered 

dinosaur-themed merchandising and 

eating experiences, with everything from 

T-Rex burgers to brontosaurus fillets. 

The big T-Rex joins McArthurGlen’s 

elephant at Castel Romano. The life-sized 

elephant sculpture arrived last year by 

road from the UK, stopping off along the 

way at designer outlet villages in Swindon 

and Ashford in the UK, Roermond 

in The Netherlands and Troyes, France, 

before crossing the Alps to Italy. Stan 

visited Barberino and Serravalle Designer 

Outlets, before arriving in Castel Romano. 

Sales jumped by more than 10 percent at 

each center when the elephant visited. c 


Serravalle Designer Village near Milan provide the perfect backdrop for an outdoor 

music festival such as the jazz festival that McArthurGlen hosts every year at the center. 

Collezioni opens 4th in Glasgow 

McArthurGlen’s Collezioni, 

a new concept in full-price 

fashion for the travel retail 

market, will open its fourth location at 

Glasgow Airport later this year. Last 

year’s launch of the first Collezioni, 

at Venice Marco Polo Airport, re-invigorated 

the presentation of prestige 

fashion brands in an airport retail 

setting. Since then the concept has 

been expanded to Porto and Dublin 

Airports, with a portfolio of brands 

tailored to suit the specific needs of 

each location. The concept grew out 

of McArthurGlen’s relationship with 

more than 750 brands through the 

outlet distribution channel. 

At Glasgow Airport, Collezioni will 

unveil 11 new stores for directional 

fashion brands eager to capture an 

annual audience of more than 4 mil- 

lion departing passengers. The units 

are concentrated in a stylish, curved 

avenue of stores in the departure 

lounge, part of a £31 million revamp 

of the terminal. 

As the commercial heart of 

Scotland, Glasgow has the UK’s 

largest retail centre outside London 

and hosts the country’s greatest 

concentration of fashion retailing. 

Glasgow’s notably vibrant fashion 

market is driven by an enthusiastic 

local audience of young early 

adopters of fashion, supplemented 

by strong tourist traffic. In particular, 

Glasgow’s population has a high 

proportion of young adults. 

Glasgow Airport’s traffic is primarily 

leisure, with key international destinations 

being the Netherlands, Spain, 

Ireland, Dubai, the US and Canada. c

Fashion Arena 

plans expansion 

DOUBLiNG iTS TENANCY in just 

18 months, Fashion Arena Outlet 

Center, the first outlet center in 

Prague, is now planning an expansion. 

The second phase, scheduled 

for completion in 2010, will add 

another 36 retail units to the center. 

More than 2 million customers have 

shopped at the 269,100-sf center 

since its opening in November 2007. 

Opening with 36 stores, the center 

now has 74 shops, including wellknown 

Czech brands and international 

brands such as Calzedonoia/ 

Intimisimi, Nike, Pepe Jeans London, 

Samsonite and Ecco. 

The €6.3 million phase 2 will add 

7,200-m 2 to the project’s GLA. 

Carlyle, Crimson 

form JV for 

Portugal expansion 

ThE CARLYLE GROUP recently 

announced a joint venture partnership 

with Crimson Investment 

Management in Portugal. The partnership 

will advise, execute investments 

and carry out asset management 

services in Portugal on behalf 

of Carlyle. 

Carlyle will focus primarily on 

assets located in the Lisbon area 

across all commercial property 

sectors, with a particular focus on 

office, retail and hotels. 

Crimson Investment Management 

will work on an exclusive basis for 

Carlyle’s third European real estate 

fund, CEREP III, which raised €2.2 

billion of equity in June 2008. Carlyle 

owns one asset in Portugal, the 

807,300-sf Freeport Outlet Alcochete. 

Carlyle acquired the mammoth center 

when it purchased Freeport PLC 

in 2007 through its second European 

real estate fund, CEREP II. 

NEWS NOTES 

Offering discounts up to 90 percent, the night shopping event better known 

as Pricemania drew huge crowds this summer to the 185,900-sf Fashion 

House Outlet Center Warsaw. 

Crimson Investment Management 

was founded in November 2008 by 

Carlos Moedas, who previously was 

the Portuguese head of Aguirre 

Newman. 

high speed rails 

draw brands to 

Ashford D.O. 

MCARThURGLEN REPORTS that 

three new brands, Musto, Skechers 

and Phase Eight, have relocated to 

its Ashford Designer Outlet center 

in anticipation of a new, high-speed 

rail service that will stop at the center. 

The high-speed line promises to 

cut travel time to and from London 

by up to 47 minutes. The rail service 

is scheduled to be in operation by 

December. 

“The new fast train link will not 

only make it easier for people to 

travel to Ashford from London, 

but it will also enable Ashford to 

grow as an important location in 

itself, whether for work or residence, 

given its greater proximity to 

London in terms of travelling time,” 

said David Maddison, manager of 

Ashford Designer Outlet. 

Ashford is a key stop on the 

Eurostar rail routes and the center 

has benefited from the weak pound. 

“We have been seeing a growing 

number of visitors from mainland 

Europe, especially Dutch, French 

and Belgian shoppers as well as 

German. Our discounts provide 

a better deal than ever for shoppers 

from euro zone countries,” 

Maddison said. 

The 181,735-sf Ashford Designer 

Outlet, which opened in 2000, has 

more than 80 stores. Its catchment 

area includes some of the region’s 

key towns and tourist locations, 

including Maidstone, Tunbridge 

Wells and Canterbury. c 


lEaSING 

LEASiNG ACTiViTY 

n McArthurGlen’s seven U.K. 

designer villages have signed 24 

new brands totaling 155,000 m 2 

of GLA in the past 12 months. 

The 24 new brands include 

David Clulow, Columbia 

Sportswear (its first UK outlet 

store), Dyrberg/Kern, Elle 

Macpherson Intimates, Fossil, 

Gieves & Hawkes, G-Star, 

Henleys, Jesiré, Links of 

London, Musto, Nicole Fahri, 

Original Penguin and Osprey 

London. And in May the Italian 

denim brand Replay opened a 

1,843-sf unit at York Designer 

Outlet. Existing brands expanding 

into other McArthurGlen 

UK centers include Tula, now 

at all seven centers. Lacoste, 

which opened its first unit at 

Cheshire Oaks, has opened a 

second at Ashford Designer 

Outlet. T.M. Lewin opened its 

The first Ferrari Factory Store opened in June at Henderson Global Investors’ Serravalle 

Designer Outlet near Milan. The Italian center is owned by Henderson’s European 

Outlet Mall Fund and developed and now managed by McArthurGlen. The 370-m 2 store 

was designed by Studio Iosa Ghini, in association with Advanced Retail Project, a specialist 

in luxury retail design. The eye-catching store is alongside one of the main entrances 

to the 38,000-m 2 scheme. The design features a glass roof that curves over to become the 

sweeping façade. Inside, two replica Formula 1 pit lanes recreate the atmosphere associated 

with grand prix racing and Ferrari automobiles. The store offers a full range of Ferrari 

fashion and accessories, including menswear, womenswear and childrenswear. The 

retail space will be divided into a fan zone, a luxury zone and a children’s zone. 


fourth unit at Swindon Designer 

Outlet, with existing 

units at Ashford, Bridgend and 

Cheshire Oaks. 

n This summer Value Retail 

signed a number of new tenants 

at its centers. Cath Kidston, 

CK Underwear, David Clulow, 

Desigual, Jack Wills, Jaeger, 

Samsonite, The North Face 

and Anya Hindmarch have 

joined Kildare Village near 

Dublin. New tenants at Bicester 

Village include Vivienne 

Westwood, Bulgari, La Perla 

and Amanda Wakely. These 

openings follow the recent arrivals 

at Bicester of Luella, Pal 

Zileri, Radley, D&G, Dolce 

& Gabbana, DVF, Elizabeth 

Hurley, Gerard Darel, Marni, 

Theory and Joseph. Bringing 

Ingolstadt Village to more 

than 100 brands are new ten- 

ants Gant, Converse, Ecco, 

Closed, Bench, Piquadro, 

Brax, Columbia, Foot Locker, 

Kiki, Clarks, Camel Active, 

Tom Tailor, Vans, The North 

Face, Salomon, Levi’s, Fossil, 

Stefano’s, Dockers, Jacques 

Britt, Seidensticker, Theory 

and Helmut Lang. Also in Germany, 

Furla, Salewa, Schumacher, 

Think Pink, Triumph 

and ZZ Hannes Roether have 

joined Wertheim Village, 

which is in the Frankfurt market. 

n New brands joining Stable 

International’s 277,446-sf 

Batavia Stad Fashion Outlet 

Shopping in the Netherlands 

include Calvin Klein, Fossil, 

Miss Sixty and Converse. In 

the coming months Claudia 

Sträter, Peak Performance 

and Marlboro Classics Women 

will also open at the eightyear-old 

center. Batavia Stad 

added 6,000-m 2 of GLA this 

year. 

n Land Securities has signed 

new tenants at The Galleria, 

Hatfield: Bedeck, Denby, I- 

Centre, Laura Ashley, French 

Connection and a 7,500-sf 

Gap. Jaeger was to open a new 

outlet in September, and Gant 

UK has recently taken over their 

franchisee’s store. 

n Tom Tailor opened its first 

dedicated kids store in the UK 

at Cusp’s Junction One international 

shopping center in 

Antrim. Pottery company Denby 

has also opened its first Irish 

outlet store, a 1,354-sf unit, at 

Junction One. The Golf Outlet 

recently opened a 1,776-sf 

store in the outlet center. 

n Filea Spa’s 263,700-sf 

Mondovicino Factory Outlet 

near Turin, Italy, recently signed 

three new tenants: Kathy van 

Zeeland, Arcolaio and Brooks 

Brothers. 

n Fashion House Gdansk has 

signed a new lease agreement 

with Triumph International.

Filea Spa’s Mondovicino Factory Outlet near Turin continues to attract crowds with 

new tenants and marketing events. 

The 176-m 2 Triumph outlet 

shop will be located in the second 

phase of the project. This 

is the third shop Triumph has 

opened at Fashion House outlet 

centers in Poland. 

n Brands Direct, which offers 

an eclectic mix of top brands 

with a clever fusion of casual 

and smarter styles, has opened 

a 1,369-sf unit at ING’s Dalton 

Park in Murton, England. 

n Resolution Property, 

owner and manager of Park 

Avenue in Bilbao, Spain, has 

signed a lease with Calvin 

Klein Jeans for 1,292-sf store. 

Calvin Klein Underwear has 

been operating at the center 

since 2007. Additionally, Benetton 

was scheduled to open a 

2,000-sf unit in the center this 

autumn. 

n Whitely Village Outlet 

Shopping in Fareham, England, 

celebrated its 10 th anniversary 

by signing three new tenants: 

old-fashioned confectionery 

store Sweet Traditions, gardening 

store Garden Outlet 

Fashion house Outlet Centre Gdansk, which opened in 2005, will open its 77,560-sf 

phase 2 in November. 

and camping specialist Yeomans. 

The 165,000-sf center 

is about 90 percent occupied. 

n Chester Properties has 

secured Marks & Spencer 

Outlet to anchor its Festival 

Park outlet center in Ebbw 

Vale, Wales. Marks & Spencer, 

opening its 48 th outlet store, 

has taken a 10-year lease on 

a 10,000-sf unit. The store 

was to be open by October 1. 

The 122,000-sf center, which 

opened in 1997, counts Clarks 

Factory Shopping, Cotton 

Traders, Sports World, Julian 

Graves and Thorntons among 

its tenants. 

n UBS Triton Property 

Fund’s 115,000-sf Springfields 

Outlet Shopping and 

Festival Gardens in Spalding, 

Lincolnshire, has added Animal 

to its line-up. The retailer, 

a popular youth-oriented 

boardsports brand, will open a 

2,200-sf unit. Animal has about 

50 stores in the U.K. and 19 

others internationally. It has a 

turnover of £40 million and in 

2008 it saw double-digit likefor-like 

growth. Animal plans 

to open 15 new stores this year. 

Springfields, operated by Chester 

Properties, also recently 

signed up Marks & Spencer 

Outlet and Gap. 

n Gap has been busy: The 

chain recently opened stores at 

WD ltd.’s Royal Quays Outlet 

Center near Newcastle, England, 

and at Orchard Street 

Investment’s 125,000-sf 

Gretna Gateway on the Scottish 

border. The Gretna store is 

6,000 sf on a 10-year lease. 

n Norwegian Outlet, a 

planned 118,400-sf project 

scheduled to open in May 2010, 

has signed Hugo Boss. The 

planned center is 75 percent 

leased with such brands as 

Tommy Hilfiger, IC Companys, 

Quiksilver, Puma and 

Levi´s. Norwegian Outlet is 

in Vestby, Norway, 25 minutes 

from Oslo. c 


WITH THIS IN MIND 

Shared outlet information 

would benefit everyone 

By Neil Chapman 

CEO 

Chameleon Retail 

Consultancy 

Sharing is good — how many 

times have I told that to my 

children? 

So why is our industry in the UK 

so reluctant to share core data? Are 

we hiding behind our traditional 

British reserve or are 

there other, more disconcerting 

reasons? 

Outlet centers of 

sorts existed in the U.K. 

and Europe before the 

arrival of the U.S.-style 

strip and village developments, 

which gave a 

certain unified shape 

to the outlet industry 

here. Interestingly 

enough, these new 

two developers, in earnings reports 

provided by Chelsea and Tanger 

Factory Outlet Centers because they 

are publicly held companies. 

Our outlet industry in Europe and 

the U.K. is swamped with data. 

On the plus side, turnover rents 

delivered from the individual shops to 

center management on a weekly basis 

have been instrumental in establishing 

and building some genuinely 

close relationships 

between developers, 

retailers, 

managers, property 

companies and 

institutions. This 

reporting has fostered 

an increased 

understanding of 

the shopping-center 

business and 

facilitated greater 

c o m m u n i c a t i o n 

outlet schemes were 

on a more regular 

driven by U.S. develop- 

Neil Chapman basis. 

ers, whom we regard as being more More of this type of information 

open in sharing statistics on the sharing, especially regarding mar- 

performance of their centres. keting and other research, would 

But are they? Not always. be key tools to delivering what the 

I understand that a few years ago, customer wants and driving sales 

five outlet developers in the U.S. forward to the mutual benefit of 

pooled their center-sales informa- both owner and retailer. 

tion in a quarterly category-by-cat- Some data has been collated on UK 

egory report. This information was commercial property by Investment 

extremely useful, not only to other Property Databank since 1985 to 

developers and financial institu- provide a reliable index of commertions, 

but also to the entire retail cial property returns. 

community. However, because But does this data really tell us 

the largest U.S. outlet developer what the footfall is at a center or 

– Chelsea Property Group – had which shops are visited or what their 

always declined to participate, the conversion rate is? What is the sales 

rest eventually made the same deci- density for ladies wear and are the 

sion and the index died. Outlet- catering units satisfying their cuscenter 

sales, occupancy, rents and tomers? Even if we did share our data, 

other data is now available from only we first would have to standardize 


that information: Should we calculate 

using gross or net sales area? Do 

customers visit the centers for the 

purpose of shopping, or are they visiting 

only after they’ve gone to a major 

tourist destination on the doorstep? 

Outlets are still the Cinderella sector 

of the retail industry and perhaps 

the plan is to keep the mystique. 

Without sharing vital information on 

a cross-border and inter-company 

basis, the industry will possibly 

remain in the shadows, even if we all 

truly believe that outlets are counter-cyclical 

to a poor economy. 

Operators are proud to tell us how 

well they are doing – even in this 

recession – but can they prove it to 

anyone? c 

Neil Chapman, CEO of Chameleon 

Retail Consultancy, has been in the outlet 

sector since 1996. He has worked 

on McarthurGlen schemes in Swindon, 

Cheshire Oaks, Mansfield and York, as 

well as Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, 

and more recently, Batavia Stad, 

Designer Outlet Berlin and leoville 

Premium Outlet in austria. 

2009/2010 

iOJ Calendar 

ICSC european Factory 

Outlets Conference 

14 - 15 October, Starhotel Rosa, 

Milan 

Mapic 

18-20 November, Palais Des 

Festivals, Cannes 

Winter 2010 IOJ 

November 11, ad space deadline 

Vrn Spring Outlet Deal Making 

25 - 26 March, Rennissance Orlando 

Resort at Seaworld, Orlando, Florida

The first FASHION HOUSE Outlet Centre in Russia launches in Moscow. 

St Petersburg follows shortly. 

FASHION HOUSE Development continues to grow its branded portfolio of Outlet Centres. The FASHION HOUSE 

Moscow project is gathering speed and retail space will soon be released to the market. A further Russian FASHION 

HOUSE Outlet Centre is due to launch soon in St Petersburg and after the huge success of FASHION HOUSE 

Bucharest West, the second Romanian Outlet Centre project is in the final stages of planning for East Bucharest. 

• FASHION HOUSE Outlet Centres are also open in: 

Warsaw (Europaproperty Best Factory Outlet Centre 

in CEE 2008) – 3 phases open 

Sosnowiec – 3 phases open 

Gdansk – phase 2 opens this winter 

• FASHION HOUSE centres are indoor with themed 

architecture and hugely popular with retailers and 

consumers alike 

• All FASHION HOUSE centres have quickly become 

successful, attracting major institutional investment 

Contact: Neil Thompson 

neil.thompson@fashionhouse.com 

Gdansk 

Sosnowiec 

St. Petersburg 

Warsaw 

Moscow 

Kiev 

Dnepropetrovsk 

Odessa 

Bucharest West 

Crimea 

Bucharest East 

• FASHION HOUSE Development plans more centres 

in Poland and Romania as well as openings in Russia 

and Ukraine 

Nizhniy Novgorod 

Kharkiv 

Donetsk 

Rostov-on-Don 

Volgograd 

Kazan 

Ufa 

Samara 

Perm 

Chelyabinsk 

Yekaterinburg 

Omsk 

Novosibirsk

Loving Outlet Shopping - Value Retail News

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