Retail Parks: Simple, Scalable and Suddenly Essential

It wasn’t that long ago that retail parks were considered the ugly duckling of retail real estate. Unspectacular, undervalued, and widely seen as a format with limited future in an era shaped by e-commerce and experience-driven destinations.

They relied on cars. They prioritized function over form. In an industry increasingly defined by emotion, storytelling, and dwell time, they felt out of place, almost like a leftover from another retail era. Today, that perception has quietly but fundamentally shifted.

Retail parks are now among the best-performing asset classes in European retail. Not despite their simplicity, but because of it. They do not rely on spectacle. Instead, they rely on clarity, accessibility, and ease of use. In today’s retail landscape, that turns out to be a powerful proposition.

The Netherland-based real estate company Redevco is among those that has been investing heavily in that sector.

Israel Casanova, Investment Director at Redevco, states (see interview):

“This segment is robust, adaptable, and easy to adjust to new trends. That is why we consider it a future-proof asset and why we will continue investing in it”

The Return of the Everyday

To understand why retail parks are working, it helps to look beyond retail and closer at everyday life. Shopping has become less of a planned activity and more of a side effect. It happens between meetings, on the way home, and in short, fragmented time windows. Efficiency is no longer a convenience. It is an expectation.

At the same time, purchasing power is shifting. While many city centers are still in recovery mode, suburban areas continue to grow, both in population and in spending capacity. Daily consumption is increasingly anchored there. Retail parks sit exactly at this intersection. They are not destinations. They are part of the route.

For years, that was seen as their limitation. Today, it is their edge.

As Olaf Ley, CEO Germany EUROFUND, puts it:

“Convenience has become a defining success factor across the entire retail industry. Even traditionally fashion-driven shopping centers are increasingly integrating convenience-oriented concepts to generate consistent footfall and strengthen customer loyalty. Retail parks have recognized this shift early on and, in many ways, are setting the benchmark for the future of modern retail destinations — creating steady everyday frequency that ultimately benefits non-convenience retailers as well.”

Planning, Policy and the Shape of Retail

But this shift did not happen in a vacuum. The rise of retail parks in Europe has never been purely market-driven. Retail development in Europe has long been shaped by regulation, and the rise of retail parks has been closely tied to planning policy.

Unlike in the United States, where retail followed the logic of the car with relatively few restrictions, many European countries actively limited out-of-town retail development for decades. The reasoning was straightforward. Large-scale retail projects do not just create new supply, they redistribute demand. Left unchecked, they can weaken existing retail structures, particularly in historic town centers.

As a result, planning systems across Europe were designed to protect established retail hierarchies. In countries such as Germany or the United Kingdom, national frameworks guided where and how large-scale retail could be developed, often prioritizing central locations through instruments such as the sequential approach.

• In the Netherlands, this logic was applied particularly strictly. From the 1970s onwards, peripheral retail was only permitted for specific categories under the so-called PDV policy, mainly bulky goods such as building materials, cars, or furniture. Later, the GDV policy allowed larger retail formats, but only in a limited number of designated locations. For decades, this effectively prevented the emergence of modern retail parks. As the study “Retail Development in the Netherlands” by Erwin Van der Krabben (2009) notes, such policies were effective in preventing “undesired off-center retail developments” while limiting negative impacts on existing retail structures.
  
  The turning point came in 2004 with the Nota Ruimte, when the national government stepped back from strict location control and shifted responsibility to regional and local authorities.
  
  The same study describes this as a move “from a centralized to a decentralized planning model,” based on the assumption that local decision-making would be more effective in shaping retail development. At the same time, the transition introduced new uncertainties, as coordination mechanisms weakened and retail development became less predictable.
  
• In the United Kingdom, a more liberal planning environment enabled retail parks to evolve more dynamically. As the article “The evolution of the retail park” published by Savills (2020) notes, retail parks have “reinvented themselves significantly” over the past two decades, shifting from bulky-goods destinations to diversified formats that integrate fashion, leisure, and food and beverage offers. This adaptability was partly enabled by fewer restrictions on tenant mix, allowing landlords to respond more flexibly to changing consumer behavior and market conditions.
  
• France represents yet another model. Large-scale retail development in peripheral locations was actively encouraged from the 1960s onwards, particularly through the expansion of hypermarkets and retail zones on the outskirts of cities. At the same time, this growth was tightly regulated through legislation such as the Loi Royer (1973) and later the Loi Raffarin (1996), which aimed to control retail expansion and protect smaller urban retailers. The result is a highly structured retail landscape, where peripheral retail has long been established, but remains closely managed.
  
• Across Europe, these different trajectories highlight a common theme. Retail parks are not just a product of consumer demand or investor strategy. They are the outcome of planning decisions, institutional frameworks, and political choices about how retail should be distributed in space.

Against this backdrop, the current success of retail parks appears less like a sudden shift and more like the result of long-term structural change.

A Market Repricing “Boring”

This shift is also visible on the capital markets. Retail parks have moved from being perceived as generic assets to being recognized as reliable performers. During the COVID crisis, they demonstrated a level of resilience that few had expected. Combined with relatively low capital expenditure and stable income streams, this has repositioned them as a compelling investment proposition.

Roman Müller, Head of Investment Management Retail at Union Investment, describes this shift clearly:

“Over the past five to six years, we have significantly adjusted our exposure to essential retail, that is, neighborhood supply. We see structural stability, high liquidity, and continued catch-up potential there.”

The numbers support this view. According to CBRE, European retail parks delivered total returns of around 9.9 percent in 2025, placing them among the top-performing retail segments. In a market that has become more volatile and more selective, reliability is no longer dull. It is valuable.

Darya Frolova, EMEA Director, Insights and Intelligence CBRE Investment Management, states:

“European retail parks are no longer a mispriced defensive play. What we are seeing is a structural revaluation driven by suburban population growth, limited supply in mature markets and the sector’s integration into omnichannel retail. The opportunity now lies in actively capturing income growth rather than simply accessing yield.”

Retail Park Performance in Europe

Stability by Design

Retail parks do not perform because of momentum. They perform because of structure. Unlike shopping centers, their success is not driven by peak footfall, tourism, or discretionary spending. It is driven by everyday demand. Grocery stores, discounters, drugstores, and essential services form the backbone of most tenant mixes.

In a market that has become more volatile, reliability is no longer boring. It is valuable.

These are not optional purchases. They are part of daily routines. That distinction matters. It reduces volatility, stabilizes income, and creates a level of predictability that is increasingly rare in retail real estate.

As Union Investment’s Roman Müller puts it:

“Retail parks can especially deliver stable cash flow returns and contribute to portfolio stabilization. In contrast, traditional high-street assets often represent more of a value-change play with lower running cash flows.”

From Retail to Infrastructure

At the same time, their role is shifting quietly but significantly. New formats such as Vendo Park in Poland illustrate how the concept is becoming smaller, more flexible, and more locally embedded. These are not oversized retail clusters, but compact, adaptable formats aligned with everyday needs.

Their role is expanding as well. Retail parks are increasingly integrated into omnichannel strategies, for example as click-and-collect points, return hubs, or last-mile distribution nodes. In this sense, they are no longer just retail space. They are part of the infrastructure of retail.

Israel Casanova, Investment Director at Redevco, states:

“Retail parks are increasingly becoming a kind of infrastructure for urban development, because of the essential and sustainable solutions they provide.

They are also increasingly acting as local fulfillment hubs within omnichannel networks. Retailers use these units to deliver goods within the immediate catchment. They are ideal for click & collect and for returns, which makes them very efficient.”

This is particularly evident in platforms such as STOP SHOP, CPI Europe’s retail park brand in Central and Eastern Europe. These schemes are designed as neighborhood shopping centers with catchment areas between 30,000 and 150,000 inhabitants and are deeply embedded in everyday routines.

Retail parks were never designed to be spectacular. But in today’s market, their simplicity has become a competitive advantage.

According to CPI CEO David Greenbaum, this format is currently the strongest performer in its portfolio:

“Our retail parks are highly efficient in keeping occupier costs low and resilient to higher inflation, as our tenants provide day-to-day essentials.”

With an occupancy rate of 98 percent in 2025 and growing interest from retailers that previously focused on shopping centers, the format is gaining momentum. Greenbaum adds:

“The portfolio’s footprint and reach make us a preferred landlord for leading national and international retailers. Our retail parks are the dominant retail concept in the region’s secondary and tertiary cities.”

A Tenant Mix That Reflects Reality

The evolution of retail parks is also visible in their tenant mix and increasingly in how these environments are managed. Originally centered around bulky goods such as furniture, DIY, and electronics, the format has broadened significantly. Today, fashion, discount retail, food and beverage, and leisure concepts play a growing role.

Value-oriented brands such as Aldi and Lidl are driving demand, while fashion and lifestyle retailers, once closely tied to high streets and malls, are increasingly entering the segment. The result is a more resilient mix, anchored in both necessity and value, and increasingly aligned with how people actually consume: regularly, pragmatically, and with a growing sensitivity to price.

This shift is also changing the role of operators. Retail parks are no longer managed as purely functional assets, but increasingly curated. The composition of tenants, the integration of services, and the overall quality of the environment have become critical. The idea of a curated tenant mix reflects a broader shift from leasing space to shaping places.

For retailers, the implications are equally significant. The physical store is being redefined. Retail parks offer what many urban locations increasingly cannot, namely space. Large units, flexible layouts, and cost efficiency create room for new concepts.

Physical stores are no longer just places to shop. They are becoming part of the infrastructure of everyday life.

Stores are no longer just points of sale. They are interfaces that connect online and offline channels, logistics and brand, transaction and experience. As a result, the boundaries between retail formats are becoming less rigid. What matters is not where a store is located, but how effectively it performs within a broader system.

Efficiency Meets Expectation

For consumers, expectations are moving in two directions at once. Efficiency remains non-negotiable. Shopping should be quick, seamless, and frictionless. At the same time, expectations regarding environment and quality are rising.

Retail parks are beginning to respond. Food and beverage, improved public spaces, and more considered design are becoming part of the offer. The challenge is not to become something else, but to evolve without losing what made the format successful in the first place.

Jens Betge, Real Estate Broker and Owner Betge, Real Estate Management, states:

“Retail parks have evolved into the new commercial hubs of everyday life. They are increasingly taking over the role once held by city centers, becoming the primary destination where convenience, retail, and daily routines naturally converge.”

Sustainability as a Practical Advantage

Sustainability is another area where retail parks are gaining relevance, less through ambition and more through pragmatism. Their physical characteristics make them comparatively easy to upgrade. Large rooftops lend themselves to photovoltaic installations, while simple structures facilitate energy retrofits. Open layouts also allow for new mobility solutions.

At the same time, new development approaches are addressing land-use concerns by integrating retail parks into mixed-use concepts and combining retail with office and residential uses.

A Format That Didn’t Need Reinvention

Many of today’s successful retail parks date back to the 1980s and 1990s. Built for efficiency, they followed a simple logic: large units, parking in front, logistics at the back. That structure remains, but it is being adapted.

Units are subdivided, uses diversified, and environments improved. Retail parks are not being reinvented. They are being refined, and that may ultimately be their greatest strength.

They were never designed to be spectacular. But in a market that has become increasingly complex, their simplicity has turned into a competitive advantage. Not in spite of what they are, but because of it.