American Dream in New Jersey once again began welcoming guests with the opening of retail and reopening of its indoor entertainment experiences last month. Retailers including H&M, Primark, and Zara will open their American Dream locations for the first time and DreamWorks Water Park, Nickelodeon Universe, Out of This World Blacklight Mini Golf, plus The Rink will reopen at the same time. Developer Triple Five’s major project was dark for almost seven months during the coronavirus pandemic and the mall, which is now 70 per cent entertainment and 30 per cent retail, is still awaiting a full opening, with many food options still being completed and these are expected to open late this year or early next. An inclusive, diverse community that welcomes guests from around the block and from around the world, the American Dream project is an international hub with a global reach that offers entertainment experiences beyond comparison.

Developer Hammerson is leading the transformation of a large shopping centre on the outskirts of Paris: Les 3 Fontaines. The Cergy-le-Haut shopping centre will offer 100,000sq m of retail space by the end of 2021, compared to the 64,000sq m currently on offer. With 150 shops today, the shopping centre will be offered no less than 72 complementary cells via a massive extension taking the place of the car parks. The scheme is part of the major local project that is the redevelopment of Cergy’s city centre. A modernisation of the agglomeration core will see the increase of the number of inhabitants from 5,000 to 10,000, and jobs from 10,000 to 13,000. Initially as part of the general rise of “Food & Beverage” in commercial spaces, Hammerson will inaugurate in the spring of 2020 a food hall of 3,500sq m, bringing together in one place 14 restaurants.

VIA Outlets, which owns and operates a portfolio of eleven premium fashion outlets in Europe, has been very busy in 2020, not just due to Covid-19. VIA Outlets has continued putting the health and wellbeing of its staff, brand partners and guests at the forefront of its operations, not least through its partnership with Bureau Veritas, which allowed it to obtain a ‘Safer Shopping’ certification for all of its centres. VIA Outlets has also continued implementing its three R’s strategy of remarketing, remerchandising and remodelling – with an extraordinary 84 new brand signings and 107 remodels across the portfolio YTD. The biggest remodelling of the year has taken place in Zweibrücken Fashion Outlet, where upgrades included modernising the centre, integrating new gastronomic concepts, planting over 80 new trees and building new rest and leisure areas. In addition to this, VIA Outlets has continued working closely alongside its brand partners to support brands with higher-than-normal levels of excess stock after months of lockdown – for example by offer additional space on a temporary or permanent basis, as well as pop-up stores in new centres.

Developer and owner Ceetrus Italy is to invest at least €2.5bn in a five-year plan, including Merlata Mall, a complex consisting of two buildings that extends over an area of 65,000sq m in the heart of the first ‘urban smart district’ of Milan adjacent to the AreaExpo. Merlata Mall will host new forms of entertainment based on virtual reality, sports activities and digital art as well as catering, located along a covered boulevard illuminated by natural light. The inauguration is scheduled for 2022. The second project is Milanord2 in Cinisello Balsamo. At 240,000sq m, it will combine a futuristic mall, served by a subway hub, plus an office district, scheduled to open in 2023-24. The investor is Galleria Cinisello S.r.l., a joint venture between Gruppo LSGI Italia and Ceetrus. The shopping centre will offer 100,000sq m of retail area, 10,000sq m for F&B, 20,000sq m for indoor leisure and 41,000sq m for outdoor leisure, namely the Sky Plaza, which will be the highlight of Milanord2.

The joint project between NEINVER and Nuveen Real Estate will be the first outlet centre in the Netherlands. Less than ten minutes away from Amsterdam Schipol Airport, Amsterdam The Style Outlets will occupy 19,000sq m of commercial offerings with 1,000sq m allocated to leisure areas and restaurants. Set to open with an occupancy level of 75 per cent, the location already houses 110 international brands such as Adidas, Bjorn Borg, Guess, Nike, O’Neil, Puma, Salamon and The Kooples, with more brands set to be open in the coming months. Amsterdam The Style Outlets will open to customers on 26 November and will become the 15th asset of the two companies.

Oslo S Utvikling (OSU) is the master developer behind the 900,000sq m waterfront development Bjørvika – hailed as the new hotspot of the Norwegian capital. Despite the pandemic, 2020 has been a busy year for the developer, which is responsible for delivering 340,000sq m of new retail, office and residential space. The area has seen several large openings over the summer months, including the opening of highly acclaimed Maaemo, Norway’s only three Michelin-star restaurant – which also, when it was announced in October 2018, marked OSU’s very first signing for the development as well as sister restaurant The Vandelay from the same team. Bjørvika is a bustling, lively area from day to night, serving a wide range of different users. While Bjørvika is set to house 20,000 residents and 10,000 workers once it is completed, it is already seeing a strong footfall from people living and working in the area as well as people visiting to experience the hottest neighbourhood in town.

On 20 May 2020, developer SES opened ALEJA shopping centre in Ljubljana. The €150M investment serves as a mixed-use shopping and leisure hot spot. The new district centre in Ljubljana-Šiška sets new standards, featuring 32,000sq m of GLA, 80 shops, a strong gastronomy focus, and a 6,200sq m experience, sports, and recreation zone on its roof. The iconic building marks yet another highlight in the city of Ljubljana, creating a new meeting place for the city’s residents. The shopping centre is 100 per cent let, and it houses the most modern INTERSPAR hypermarket in Slovenia, as well as Drogerie Müller, fashion brands XYZ, H&M, Hervis, Reserved, Tommy Hilfiger, and Baby Center, McDonald’s, Big Bang, and Mass, to name a few.

Scotch Corner Designer Village by developer Scotch Corner Redmond LLP will be the leading outlet and leisure destination in the North of England when it opens in 2023. The site will comprise 92 units, including ten casual dining restaurants and cafés with a GLA of 250,000sq ft. Located at the junction of the A1(M) and the A66, more than 28.9 million vehicles pass the site every year, making it one of the most accessible retail and leisure opportunities in the UK. The site is a great location for a day-out as well as an enjoyable break in a road journey between England and Scotland. The scheme will also benefit from 96 million annual tourist visits to the area and an immediate catchment of 3.8 million residents within a 60-minute drive-time.

Designed around the concept of a bamboo forest by Design International, the Forsan Central Mall exudes a restful ‘garden in the city’ feel. Known for its exceptional growth rate and versatility, bamboo reflects Abu Dhabi’s unique character and rapid development on the world stage. On the mall’s façade, a series of vertical green and brown elements create a bamboo forest effect. Forsan Central Mall is set to be the primary and only all-in-one shopping, dining and entertainment destination in the Khalifa City catchment area. Offering a rich variety of options including nine cinema screens, 22 F&B outlets, a 15,000sq m Lulu Hypermarket and Department store and 89 retail stores, the mall will cater to the basic and aspirational needs of the residents of this upscale community, while also serving as its thriving social hub. The soft opening of the mall took place in the third week of September and the project was developed by Line Investments & Property LLC.

The upcoming Mall of Dilmunia represents a balanced modernistic and futuristic architecture which creates an exciting family oriented universe within it. It will include retailers from across the MENA region that are yet to enter the Bahraini market, it aims to provide a quality entertainment, leisure and retail destination, which adds value to the Island’s tenants and guests. Being developed by Dilmunia Mall Development Company, the Mall of Dilmunia will redefine the shopping experience in Bahrain by adding urbanity to the retail experience through the development of a Boulevard. It provides visitors with the illusion that they are outdoors within a vibrant European cityscape. The open-air sky terrace allows visitors to take in the breath-taking view of the island of Muharraq. The terrace is to also include a beautiful mosque representing the Islamic family values, culture and lifestyle.

The drive towards incorporating a strong entertainment anchor to the retail mix has gained momentum in the face of a loss of retail owners in what has been labelled by some the ‘retail-apocalypse’. The question is what are the new offerings from the entertainment and attraction scene that can fill the barge shoes of previous retail offering? How can new thinking in the business drive an audience that is only now emerging from lockdown?

The audience has matured with social entertainment and media, so the entertainment offering had to evolve. This is best illustrated by the current crop of what have been labelled ‘mixed-use leisure entertainment’ (MULE) venues. Attempting to carry the burden of entertainment, the audience has changed their retail engagement so significantly that entertainment has become a vital physical draw to help attract an audience to the retail environment in the first place. Mall owners and developers have decided to fully embrace an entertainment mix.

Examples of embracing a strong entertainment mix that fits into the needs of retail, mall and leisure space can be illustrated by American Dream – defined by many as the antisepsis of a ‘retailtainment’ destination. The idea of the mega mail (covering some three million square feet) was not to depend so heavily on entertainment. The concept was forced to take on the Covid-19 lockdown, shuttering in March, and used this time to double down on embracing the entertainment mix within its operation. The operation moved to a 70 per cent entertainment split, with 30 per cent requisitioned to retail (this changing from a previous 55 per cent entertainment and 45 per cent retail mix).

The American Dream venue had originally comprised the opening of an NHL ice skating rink and the pivotal Nickelodeon theme park component. But after lockdown and evaluation of the situation, a number of retail outlets within the property were clearly not going to be reopened and so developer Tripe Five Group put additional investment into increasing the entertainment offer to fill the shortfall and boost the offering. Along with this the site is waiting on its planned DreamWorks Animation water park to open (postponed from a November 2019 plan), as well as a new hotel development

The global health crisis has thrown up a number of common elements amongst all of the hard decisions and difficult decisions the retail and facility operation businesses have had to make. Retailtainment and the inclusion of a strong social entertainment element has been one of those elements. While the news seemed to be for a time constantly filled with news of closures of famous retail brands, as of late news has started to pick up pace of new entertainment venue plans.

In Canada, the leading cinema chain Cineplex has been working hard on their interpretation of the Cinema Entertainment Center (CEC) concept, the movie theatre business decimated by a drop in ticket sales, have been dealt a second blow with the closure of their business under Covid international measures. Cineplex is one of many cinema chains that have already started investing in developing a hybrid offering towards underpinning their cinema screens with an entertainment offering. The company has developed The REC ROOM concept which is based around a strong food & beverage offering, and an intense game floor with the latest amusement, eSports and immersive attractions.

In a world that has changed so dramatically from the beginning of the year to now, consumers approach their leisure time in a more mannered and considered way, wanting to make the absolute most of any time and experience that they embark on.

With these expectations having changed and with them set to continue to do so, Paul Moreton, Group Creative Director at Merlin Entertainments lists six key future trends to watch in his article ‘Key trends for future attractions with Merlin Entertainments’ Paul Moreton’. These are ‘the power of togetherness’, ‘the importance of play’, ‘the power of storytelling’, ‘the rise of participative immersion’, ‘heritage and authenticity’, and ‘the rise of the conscious consumer’.

Alongside darts, the different types of golf have seen a major resurgence on the leisure scene in recent times, and two concepts in particular are driving this renaissance, Puttshack and Topgolf.

Puttshack has rewritten the rules of mini golf and pits together modern tech with crazy courses and cool vibes with game faces for one fantastic experience. With three locations in the UK and another three in the US, the crazy courses on offer feature custom themed holes, interactive leader boards and a digital prize wheel where you can get hooked up. It also features world-class cuisine pre-game or post-game. From vegans to omnivores and cocktail connoisseurs, everyone is welcome to discover the excellent menu on offer.

Topgolf is a global sports entertainment company headquartered in Dallas, Texas with locations in the US, UK and Australia. This concept brings people together in meaningful ways through the experiences they create, the innovation they champion and the good that the company does. Beginning life as a simple idea to enhance the game of golf, Topgolf has grown into a movement where people from all walks of life connect at the intersection of technology and sports entertainment.

The speakers on this theme come from such destinations as Area15, a shopping complex in Las Vegas offering mainly entertainment and immersive activities, and Time Out Market. A session will also be dedicated to the French market and the requalification of suburban areas, plus a session on the Italian commercial landscape.

Outlets are also evolving towards mixed-use leisure spaces. Generally built outdoors, their format fits very well with current developments and the integration of catering and leisure spaces. Dedicated conference sessions include the participation of TORG (The Outlet Resource Group) and Salomon.

This is the new commercial standard that corresponds perfectly to new-style consumers. Collaboration and innovation are the key words – collaboration between all stakeholders in retail property but also by combining sales techniques, and innovation across the entire value chain, whether technological or societal, leading to more sustainability, improved customer knowledge, reduced costs, and increased traffic.

While no retailer can do without an e-commerce site today, DNVBs (Digital Native Vertical Brands created online, such as Sézane, Glossier, and Everlane) are increasingly looking for a real-world storefront.

This topic will be discussed during the conference on “Think physical retail, think different” with Michele Molon, EVP Omnichannel & Member of the Management Board, Swarovski, Carsten KELLER, Vice President for Direct-to-Consumer, Zalando and Benjamin Calleja, CEO & Founder, Livit Design.

This sector plays a central role in enriching and extending the visitor experience in shopping malls and living spaces. Sporting activities, branded events, games, and cultural activities are all good ways to help consumers engage with an experience they could not have at home.

Among the companies that will be speaking on this topic include The Smurfs, Bisounours, UCPA, Extreme International, Unlimited Snow, Wave Surfers, Magnicity, and Zamperla.

The next physical editions of MAPIC and LeisurUp are now due to take place in Cannes in November 2021.