Serbian STOP SHOP portfolio reached 100% occupancy: Fully leased retail parks in 14 locations
The Austrian company IMMOFINANZ has just leased the last free unit in its Serbian STOP SHOP portfolio, reaching 100% occupancy rate. The new and last tenant is DexyCo in STOP SHOP Borča. IMMOFINANZ, the leading listed commercial real estate investor in Central and Eastern Europe, now has roughly 122,300 sqm of fully leased retail space in 14 locations across Serbia.
This milestone has marked the sixth year of the successful operations of IMMOFINANZ in Serbia. The company has opened 14 STOP SHOP retail parks since 2015, aiming to bring global trends to the local population in Čačak, Lazarevac, Niš, Požarevac, Vršac, Valjevo, Sremska Mitrovica, Borča, Smederevo, Subotica, Leskovac, Šabac, Sombor and Zaječar. An initial investment of EUR 60 million amounted to roughly EUR 150 million by the time of the latest acquisitions.
“We are very proud that we reached this significant milestone in Serbia with our STOP SHOP brand. This proves one more time that our focus on low rental and operating costs, affordable convenience products and our active consistent communication with our tenants throughout the pandemic were the recipe to success. Our premises are beloved among tenants and our STOP SHOP retail park concept proved to be a successful and crisis-resilient format”, said Gerald Grüll, Head of Retail at IMMOFINANZ.
With social distancing measures remaining in place, easily accessible retail parks are becoming increasingly popular shopping destinations. They remained a safe place for shopping since visitors can enter the shops directly from the parking areas, keeping the necessary distance during their shopping experience. STOP SHOPs also met the need for more affordable products in times of crisis, providing a broad range of products with convincing cost-benefit ratios for price-conscious families. As a result, visitor frequency in these retail parks in Serbia quickly returned to the pre-crisis level.
The STOP SHOP portfolio covers 100* locations in nine countries with nearly 750,000 sqm of rentable space. Further acquisitions and internal development projects are currently in preparation, with the aim to expand to 140 STOP SHOP locations over the medium-term. The focus is on markets in CEE, Southeast Europe, and Austria and selective entry into other West European countries.
Details on the STOP SHOP portfolio
STOP SHOP is the IMMOFINANZ brand for retail parks in Central and Eastern Europe. They are local suppliers with a catchment area of 30,000 to 150,000 residents and offer a broad range of products with good value for money. With efficient transport connections as well as extensive parking, they concentrate on price-conscious “smart shoppers” who value easy accessibility. IMMOFINANZ‘s STOP SHOP portfolio, including the most recent purchases in Serbia, Croatia, Austria and Czech Republic, covers 99 retail parks in nine countries: Slovakia (16 STOP SHOPs), Slovenia (14), Hungary (14), Austria (13), Serbia (14), Czech Republic (12), Poland (10), Croatia (4), Italy (1) and Romania (1) as of September 2021.
*inlcuding current development in Zielona Gora, Poland
