Press Conferences

Vacancy of Rustler Group's malls in Ukraine may increase to 25% during possible lockdown in Dec-Jan

KYIV. Nov 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Rustler Property Service (Kyiv), which manages the City Center shopping and entertainment center in Mykolaiv and the shopping and office center in Ave Plaza in Kharkiv, predicts an increase in vacancy in its facilities up to 25% if quarantine is toughened and the malls will be completely closed in December and January.

This was announced by Director of the real estate management department of Rustler Property Service Oleksandra Nehoda at a press conference entitled "Real Cost of Lockdowns: Losses to Government and Shopping Centers" at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

"If we talk about forecasts of what awaits us in the event of a full lockdown in December and January, we have made an estimate based on our current negotiations and tenants. About 22-25 boutiques of different sizes will be closed, perhaps quite large boutiques of our local networks, which will lead subsequently, to an increase in vacancy rate up to 25%, this is about 5,000 square meters of space in our facilities," she said.

In addition, Nehoda said that the outflow of such a number of tenants will also lead to the loss of 200-250 jobs.

Despite the fact that the malls provided preferential lease terms throughout the spring lockdown, many retailers could not even pay for operating costs, Nehoda said. Thus, the leaseholders' debt to the company increased two or three times. The decrease in the profitability of the group's facilities amounted to 20-40%.

"If in 2019 the current receivables of tenants amounted to 3-5% of all charges, then this year the figure may reach 25%," Nehoda said.

According to her, representatives of small businesses suffered the most from the lockdown. Their lack of a safety margin in case of a repeated lockdown will lead to their displacement from the market by international networks, especially Turkish and Polish operators.

Rustler Real Estate Service LLC was founded in 2008. The company's portfolio of managed real estate includes Eco Tower business center (Zaporizhia) and UNIQA Park Tower business center (Odesa), City Center shopping mall (Mykolaiv), Ave Plaza shopping center (Kharkiv), the office in Reitarska Street and the office of Unicredit bank in Kyiv, the Slavutich brewery.

The owner of the company, according to the unified public register, is Austria's Rustler Gruppe Gmbh. The ultimate beneficiaries are Dr. Peter Rustler, M. Robert Wegerer and Julia Wegerer-Rustler.

The registered capital of the company is UAH 101,300.

Rustler Group provides a variety of services in the field of conventional property management, technical operation, development and brokerage, as well as construction planning, project management, and appraisal. The group is represented in Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Germany. The total area of the group's portfolio of office, shopping centers and residential projects is 3.5 million square meters.

Advertising
Advertising

MORE ABOUT

LATEST