Echo Investment is to build Outlet Park Szczecin on Struga street in Szczecin, which will be the first facility of this type in the Pomeranian province.

Outlet Park Szczecin will be built on the spot of the currently open PHS centre, where earlier the Astra shopping centre was planned to be built.

“Since the time when the first concept was developed, we have carried out professional assessment of the changing market situation. We have established that an outlet centre will address the demand and fill in a market niche in this region of the country. We have a great location at our disposal with a reach of over 2,2 mln people, we have financial resources reserved and we cooperate with teams of designers and consultants who are experienced in the field of outlet centres,” says Marcin Materny, shopping centre sales director at Echo Investment SA.

The leasable area of Outlet Park Szczecin will amount to over 23,000 sqm. Customers will have 1,400 parking spaces at their disposal. Outlet Park will be developed in three stages. In stage one there will be a shopping gallery built with a leasable area of approx. 9,000 sqm, where 60 retail outlets will be located, in the second stage there will be 10,000 sqm built and in the next one – app. 4,000 sqm. There will be approx. 120-130 tenants in the whole facility.

The market of outlet centres in Poland is still a very young business. Because of specificity of outlet centre activities the number of developers specializing in this type of projects remains small. “The pool of tenants interested in running their business in outlet centres is not without importance. The sector will reach the level of relative saturation in the next few years and a sudden growth in leasable area in this sector is not to be expected. Our research has shown that in the current situation Szczecin is ready for another format of a shopping facility such as an outlet centre. Also the change of tenants’ perception of Szczecin is not without importance, for whom Szczecin has become another place to develop their chains in. Commercialization of the Outlet Park has not started yet but the project enjoys a lot of interest,” says Magda Frątczak from CB Richard Ellis, the company cooperating at the commercialization of the centre.

The architectural concept of Outlet Park Szczecin was created in Vsf – Creative architectural studio.

The first stage of the project will already be launched in Q1 2011. The stage is to be completed in Q4 2011.

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CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm (in terms of 2009 revenue). The Company has approximately 29,000 employees (excluding affiliates), and serves real estate owners, investors and occupiers through more than 300 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide. CB Richard Ellis offers strategic advice and execution for property sales and leasing; corporate services; property, facilities and project management; mortgage banking; appraisal and valuation; development services; investment management; and research and consulting.

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