Beating heart of local ecosystems
Our Full Service Centers will be at prime locations that fit with our strategy, in regional cities across the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Each center will become the beating heart of the local ecosystem in which people live and work. A smart blend of retail and services seamlessly aligned with public facilities, transportation, free parking, residential real estate, offices and entertainment.
When investing, we look for centers that are well-located: in areas of population density, with support from local government. We take care to match the mix of shops and services within each center to the needs of the local community.
In our locations, food retail still plays an important role. Many of our tenants are household names food retailers like Albert Heijn, Carrefour, Leclerc and Jumbo. We also have fashion stores like Zara, C&A and H&M. Cinema group, Pathé, is also one of our largest tenants. But in future, food retail will take up less space, proportionally, than in the past. With LifeCentral, we also expect non-retail in our centers – services such as bars, restaurants, cinemas, co-working spaces and health clubs – to more than double in importance over the next five years.
To implement our strategy effectively, we’ll be investing in our centers. Over the coming five years, we’ll invest more than EUR 300 million to make the necessary upgrades and structural adjustments, introduce personalised digital services, and bring in new tenants. We’ll then continue to invest to keep the centers up-to-date and modernized. As a rule, we will spend 0.5% of a center’s value each year on maintenance and upgrades.
We want to create a virtuous circle: by meeting consumer needs, we’ll attract more visitors, improve income for our tenants and increase the value of our investments. Unlocking real, long-term growth for investors.
We’ll also create value for our communities – not only by providing local services, but also by contributing to economic growth and job creation.
LifeCentral, in effect, will create a whole new category of commercial real estate – places where people go to work, play, shop, relax and spend time with their loved ones.
