Up to 200 million euros are planned to be invested in the next five years for the renovation and expansion of several of the shopping centers in Carmila Spain. The most important operation includes 150 million destined for the expansion of a shopping center in the north of Barcelona, in a clear commitment to make this complex a regional benchmark. Other of the shopping centers that are currently under study are El Mirador de Burgos y León, which will also be expanded in the coming years. In 2020, it is not ruled out to close the purchase of a center to grow its Spanish portfolio.
Alberto Rodríguez, Operations Director of Carmila Spain, explains the plans to revalue the shopping centers and galleries adjacent to the Carrefour hypermarkets, the main mission that the French multinational entrusted to Carmila after its creation in 2014. The real estate company owns and manages 215 shopping centers in France, Spain and Italy, with a combined value of 6,377 million euros, which places it as the third listed company in the sector in continental Europe, according to company data.
Carmila’s Spanish portfolio has 78 shopping centers, with 469,900 m2 of gross leasable area (SBA) and 2,813 premises and medium-sized areas, which provide a rental figure of about 93 million euros per year. A heritage that Rodríguez, together with his team, manages using the nose of retailer looking for opportunities tuned during his years in companies like Decathlon and his look as a consultant trained in firms like CBRE, Metrovacesa or the current Savills-Aguirre Newman.
Carmila has presented good results this third quarter, can they be maintained at the end of 2019 or is there a slowdown?
The results in Spain can only be described as spectacular. We grew to double digits thanks to both 2018 acquisitions and organic growth of over 6%. As for the end of the year, everything seems to indicate that it will be in line with these results and the great activity carried out all these months with some 200 commercialization operations and as many renewal operations. We are very happy.
And will that joy continue in 2020?
It is true that we have carefully reviewed our goals for the coming year. For this we have taken into account the socioeconomic information and that provided by our merchants, but we continue to maintain optimism. Our operators continue to culminate a great transformation to retain and continue attracting customers, and we are seeing this in a greater influx of public. On the other hand, Carmila reinterprets its marketing plans, aimed at improving the sales of our retailers, and we are also very attentive to new opportunities for brands and concepts to attract them, including pure players [se refiere a empresas que solo venden en Internet].
But the approach of the large distribution to the city center with massive openings of supermarkets and convenience stores reduces visitors to the hyper …
The hypermarkets are making a great effort of innovation that now offers results in the increase in visitors, our counting systems confirm that this growth trend is around + 1.5% compared to 2018.
Circumstance that will encourage new acquisitions, as it already happened in 2018?
We are still open, our requirements are not very complicated as long as there is a Carrefour hypermarket in the commercial mix. It is possible that during 2020 we will carry out some, but these operations are under study.
About the expansion plan, can you specify more?
Yes, in parallel we are advancing in this revitalization of the centers, always in collaboration with Carrefour Property. We will work in centers in Catalonia and Castilla-León, among others, where we will promote the creation of new square meters, as we are doing now with Parquesol in Valladolid and Los Llanos in Albacete and we did before with Los Patios, in Málaga.
What investment do they involve?
We have an estimated investment of 200 million to date for the next five years.
What kind of operators are looking for their shopping centers?
Those who do things well, with a clear business model and backed by a passionate and professional businessman we trust. But there has to be a prior question, which adapts to the commercial offer that we want for each center. We have a strategic plan that is reviewed annually to ensure that your commercial mix is appropriate for the area of influence. And that analysis leads us to detect needs and types of business that we seek. Innovation is vital, having what is not available elsewhere, and that is complicated, which leads us to work a lot with pure players.
There has been a lot of talk these years about the landing in the physical store of pure online commerce operators, but there are no great movements …
We are negotiating with various brands and we have a presence in many forums to attract new operators. We managed to get the Hawkers glasses brand to close one of its first firms with us and we have had experiences with others in fashion and services. We are experimenting through, for example, pop-up store formats, with businesses that until now were only online. We will see the development and the lines of collaboration.
They also pay attention to the service sector …
It is that they give us very good news. New cosmetic brands, law firms, dental clinics, medical clinics, gyms of all sizes, we see that there are very good professionals out there who used to join street venues and now choose a shopping center.
Ikea also tests other models, is there continuity beyond the incorporation of your Ikea Diseña in the Sierra de Córdoba shopping center?
We have also signed a 200 m store for the Mirador de Burgos2 recently opened. And we hope not to stay there in this collaboration and to replicate these formats in other locations with similar needs. Proximity is a very important factor for the consumer, because in addition to digital, neither all the answers nor all the tranquility that some consumers seek are found. And that’s something that brands like Ikea have understood very well.
Is technology also very important in the shopping center? Which ones do you think will be more transformative?
You see a lot of trial and error. There have been significant investments by some real estate companies, and in fact in some cases with modest results, as has happened with mobile applications in shopping centers. Technology advances a lot, and in two years it can make a project obsolete. Nowadays, there is a strong commitment to digital screens and projection systems, both as channels of communication and interaction with the client and for their versatility to thematize the space. We have it planned for the reform of the As Cancelas shopping center in Santiago de Compostela, and we see it in the major shopping centers in the world.
And what technology will contribute the most to the management of the shopping center?
We are very attentive to advances in artificial intelligence. There is a lot of work to be done but as managers and owners we see that these data collection tools are going to give us invaluable information to have a greater proximity with the merchant and adapt their marketing and promotion campaigns. It is also crucial information for the selection of brands and concepts, because it detects needs and demands, information that we put at the service of the operator to make its implementation decisions. And on the other hand, for the management of the building’s consumption and its general services. And we will see all this shortly.
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