Furniture Parks paint a healthy picture across CEE region
The growing popularity of furniture parks across Central and Eastern Europe has been amply demonstrated by a new scheme in Warsaw which is already 95% let just weeks after opening.
Metropol Dom i Wnętrze, a
21,000 m² retail scheme targeting interior decoration and home furnishing
companies, opened in the Polish capital in late March and only a small number
of its 40 units remain unlet.
King Sturge, sole letting
agent for the scheme’s developer, the Metropol Group, is in negotiations for
the remaining stores. In the last few weeks alone, deals have been struck with
Polish furniture and homeware retailers VOX Meble (365m²) and MM Collecion,
Ovo Meble and Ami Meble, who have each taken 220 m² units.
The majority of the other
retailers at the scheme are Polish with a couple of exceptions such as Danish
brand Jsyk, highlighting the strength of indigenous demand for modern,
well-proportioned retail outlets. The furniture park also features a Bomi supermarket,
restaurant and travel agent and 420 parking spaces. It lies adjacent to an
8,000 m² Brico Depot and Metropol Park Jagiellońska, the large warehouse and
office complex managed by Jagiellońska Ceantrum Logistyczne, a subsidiary of
the Metropol Group.
Located at Jagiellońska 82
Street, close to the Vistula river, the furniture park is just 10 minutes north
of central Warsaw
and is well served by bus, tram and train station.
The Metropol scheme has
proven very popular with retailers in the interior décor and furnishings sector
despite the fact that it is only a short distance from the Domoteka furniture
park at Targowek, which also includes an IKEA, Decathlon Electro World and Leroy Merlin.
Mark Barnes, King Sturge Head
of Retail for the CEE/SEE region, confirms that the scheme has let extremely
well and shows that retail patterns are continuing to evolve in Poland. “Rival
retailers are happy to locate in clusters, enabling shoppers to visit one
location for a particular product and allowing retailers to compete on price
and quality,” he says.