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The real estate project, repeatedly postponed, has been “eliminated”: 1.6 billion investments canceled. URW reassures, but the stop seems safe.
from London Simone Filippetti
3 ‘reading
The first economic repercussion of the world pandemic in Italy materialized in Segrate, the interior of Milan. The mega mall project disappears Westfield Milan. The English format that should have arrived in the fashion and shopping capital of London by now will not (and there are those who fear never again). The unprecedented crisis triggered by coronavirus Freezes one of Italy’s largest commercial and real estate projects: The European shopping mall giant has postponed its debut to a later date (and the expression sounds almost final like never before). It stops a Project of 1,600 million euros: The impact on Lombardy GDP, between direct and indirect investments, is significant.
A debut expected 10 years
There was much anticipation about the landing on the mainland of the first Westfield brand shopping center. Currently, the only presence in Europe is in London, with the pharaonic Shepherd’s Bush (which costs £ 1.6 billion and covers 240,000 square meters: there are around 50 football pitches), and the Stratford “branch”. It is the largest on the Old Continent (there were 12 more on the entire continent, but last year they were renamed URW by the new owner). Westfield’s London concept is innovative: huge spaces, right in the city center and not in the suburbs. After London, the future Westfield would have been in Milan, where the shopping center would have housed a department store, the luxurious La Fayette Galleries from Paris, also making his debut in Italy. Westfield’s landing outside Milan would also have required changing all local roads. In fact, there is a purpose-built junction, which has also been postponed for the time being.
Actually, there was talk of a landing in Italy of the English brand for at least 10 years: Westfield Milano’s first project dates back to 2011: 60 hectares of planning.
Directed by Percassi, the Starbucks man
To pull the ropes, the “King of Retail” in Italy, Antonio Percassi, the owner of the Kiko chain, president of the “miracle” Atalanta, but above all the director of the landing in Italy of many foreign brands: from Wagamama for El Secreto de Victoria until the historical and “heretical” debut of Starbucks in Milan with Roastery. The developer and real estate entrepreneur in Bergamo has a 25% stake in the project.
The mega shopping center that would have surpassed the former Alfa Romeo de Arese shopping center, had already come from years of delays: three times the project, initially scheduled for 2018, had been postponed and, finally, there was also a reduction in the surface and a change of offer in luxury. The last date on the calendar said 2022. But now, with everyone locked up, the retail industry and, above all, the shopping centers, which make the crowd their business model, suffers a lot. In London, Westfield Shepherd’s Bush mini-city has been closed since March 20 and no one knows when it will reopen (England is officially quarantined until May 7, but the government doesn’t seem as eager to reopen right now) . The economic damage is devastating.
Already dealing with the impact on existing shopping centers, the stoppage of new projects appears as a logical consequence for the multinational Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. Hidden in the folds of the first quarter financial statements was the announcement of a withdrawal from the Milan project. The real estate holding company that controls shopping malls in a few fast lines announced that the project has been “phased out”: in light of the impact of the epidemic on consumption, the holding company has revised its entire supply chain. investmentsequal to 3.6 billion euros, and projects under control. He added that Westfield Milano, a € 1.6 billion project, has also been scrapped. However, most likely, the communication that arrived over the weekend from Westfield Italy, the multinational’s branch, speaks of a simple postponement. But who knows when. And the most malicious, among the observers of the real estate market, think that as a result of the crisis, the multinational company has decided to cut a piece in which it no longer believed much.
