In Poland, 2020, a turbulent year, has brought about many changes in the retail market. The unexpected occurrence of the pandemic has complicated the situation for both contractors and tenants. However, Covid-19 has not so much initiated new trends as it has dynamized the existing ones. It is not only about the growing importance of the omnichannel approach, especially with regard to e-commerce; the increasing share of retail parks and convenience centers in retail sales also ranks as one of the key trends. As research has shown, smaller-scale commercial formats have been most successful in dealing with the challenges brought about by the pandemic.

Retail parks and hybrids have weathered the storm of the crisis relatively well due to their high proportion of local supply. Nevertheless, in the vortex of the coronavirus crisis, the issue of sustainability seems to have fallen by the wayside in many cases. That picture, however, is deceptive. The necessary (re)alignment of retail parks and other agglomerated retail real estate properties makes it necessary for ESG criteria (environment, social, governance) to be taken into account. The following “Top 5 Lessons Learned” were taken from a recent publication on retail parks in Germany*.

Modern retail stock in Romania will exceed the 4 million sq m threshold by the end of the year. Several openings were postponed due to Covid-19.

Almost 90,000 sq m of new retail space was delivered to Polish market in the second quarter of 2020. Footfall amounted to approximately 80% of last year’s due to the pandemic.