It was a 4th October 2012just a decade ago, when port of venice opened its doors in Zaragoza to receive its first visitors and customers. The center or, as its managers call it, the shopping center, It was inaugurated in the midst of the economic crisis and with the uncertainty whether the Aragonese capital would be able to sustain and feed what is still the largest shopping mall in Spain (and one of the largest in Europe). Well, the truth is that ten years later, Puerto Venecia can boast not only that it has resisted, but also that it has achieved its goals and left some of its competitors behind.
This Tuesday the complex celebrated its ten years of existence with a mass event in which a study prepared by the Marketing and Market Research Department of University of Zaragoza. The resulting figures are overwhelming and the directors of Puerto Venecia have used them to explain the “success” of their business model.
Therefore, according to the data of that report, Puerto Venecia contributes 1% to the gross domestic product of Aragon and its economic impact on the community from 2013 to 2021 amounts to 5,734 million euros (586.3 last year, the latest for which full data is available).
But what is most striking, and even more so given the situation of some of its competitors, is the presence that this center has achieved. Since it opened its doors in 2012, Puerto Venecia has accumulated 178 million visits and the average since its inauguration is 1.5 million visits every month. The day more customers were received in a single day, 150,000 people were reached.
For this year, despite still missing three months, the center is estimated to reach 18.5 million visitors, a figure slightly lower than those reached from 2016 to 2019, when they always exceeded 19 million visits.
Disneyland cannot compete
All this means that Puerto Venecia has become a “very important” pole of attraction for Zaragoza and, to get an idea of the volume of influx that this means, the management of the center offered the following comparison: Disneyland Paris, one of the most important leisure resort of the world, it does not reach the number of visitors of the Zaragoza complex. Compared to the 18.5 million that is expected to reach this year, the Parisian park will not exceed 16 million. Of the total number of customers, 34% come from outside Zaragozamainly within a 90 minute radius.
The “success” of Puerto Venecia, for the tango, seems to have been palpable and demonstrable, and even more so when compared to the future of other commercial complexes in Zaragoza. The Plaza shopping center opened four years earlier and there is nothing left of its gallery but a plan to demolish it and build a Costco. And the La Torre Outlet property, two years after its opening, is already looking for new owners. And not to mention the Augusta Shopping Center. Only Gran Casa resists.
“Zaragoza appreciates this public attraction because people who come to Puerto Venecia end up visiting our streets, our monuments, our hotels and even our shops, local commerce,” said the Councilor for the Treasury of the Zaragoza City Council, Maria Navarro, who was present at the event.
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary celebration, the manager of the complex, Yolanda Gimeno, he also made sure to mention “local trade”. He then said so 25% of the operators in Puerto Venecia are owned by the Aragonese capital, both with their own brands and franchises.
Two years with the new ownership
“Many of us thought that buying was buying, even though we had read that the trends were going towards generating shopping experiences, sensations, sensory marketing and when Puerto Venecia opened we were able to verify that,” said the General Manager. of Commerce of Government of AragonEva Fortea, who apologized for the vice president Arturo Aliaga, who would have been present at the event on behalf of the regional council.
As for sales, in 2021 the group of operators of the commercial complex reached a level of revenues above 600 million euros. And in terms of workers, the center employs around 3,400 people. In 2019 the record was reached in this sense with 5,400 jobs generated, surpassing direct and indirect jobs.
Puerto Venecia has been owned, since May 2020, by a fund managed by Union Investment Real Estate and Generali. Since its arrival, in the midst of the covid crisis, the group has invested 9 million euros to improve the exterior of the structures. In March the new children’s area will open and the reform of the shores of the central lake will be completed.
Ten years later, Puerto Venecia is still Spain’s largest shopping complex. With a land of 600,000 square meters and 200,000 of rentable area, its 240 premises have an occupancy rate of 98%, which explains the interest this center arouses in operators. And as the numbers continue to grow, it will be necessary to see how their competitors and established city trade hold up.
