The Ocean Plaza shopping and leisure mall at 176, Gorky Street in Kyiv was among the four best shopping and leisure malls selected at the MAPIC Awards-2013 contest out of hundreds of malls in 24 countries, K.A.N. Development LLC, the developer of the mall, said in a press release, referring to the head of the marketing and sales department, Hanna Popruha.

She said that the finalists of the Best Retail and Leisure Development category are Ocean Plaza (Kyiv, Ukraine), Plaza Singapura (Singapore), Puerto Venecia (Zaragoza, Spain) and Vegas Crocus City (Moscow region, Russia).

Popruha said that over the whole history of MAPIC Awards this is the first time a Ukrainian project has been a finalist.

"Over 30% of brands presented in Ocean Plaza selected the mall as an entry-project. The Ocean Plaza mall hit a record in rent rates and goods turnover per square meter. This is one of the most successful businesses in retail property," UTG (Kyiv), an exclusive broker of the project and the author of the concept, said in a press release, quoting its partner Vitaliy Boiko.

The winners of the contest will be announced on November 14, 2013 at the MAPIC Awards-2013 exhibition in Cannes (November 11-14, 2013).

Ocean Plaza is the largest shopping and leisure mall in the city center in Kyiv, which first phase was opened in autumn 2012. The total area of the first phase is 165,000 square meters. Ocean Plaza presents over 300 stores and 30 conceptual restaurants.

The co-investor of the project is UDP, K.A.N. Development is a developer of the project and UTG is an exclusive broker of the project and the author of the concept (all based in Kyiv).