Developers are overcoming planning hurdles to build outlet centres
Outlet Centres International has announced plans for Germany’s biggest factory outlet mall at Zweibrucken, close to the border with France and Luxembourg. The 30,000 m2 mall will be developed in three phases, with the first – comprising 70 to 80 units – due to start on site in summer 1998.
Zweibrucken claims a catchment population of 15m in Germany, France and Luxembourg, and the outlet mall forms part of a wider development called Air City centred around the redevelopment of a former NATO air base. The site lies on the E62 autobahn.
Until now developers have been unable to secure planning permission for outlet malls in Germany, where there is a strong presumption in favour of existing town centres. However the local authority in Zweibrucken is one of very few in Germany not to impose a blanket ban on such forms of development. And according to Martin Crossley of Chesterton, who advises the developer, the redevelopment of the air base is seen as an important source of jobs in an unemployment blackspot.
The only other concentration of outlet mall proposals in Germany is around Berlin. Morrison Development Holdings has just won planning permission for a 13,500 m2 outlet mall at Wustermark on the outskirts of the city, on a site owned by Bavarian firm Demex Systembau. Two other schemes are proposed for Berlin with BAA McArthur Glen set to build an outlet mall at Eichstadt and Trizec Hahn planning a rival operation at Ludwigsfelder.
OCI was founded by Hans Dobke, former managing director of London & Stockholm Properties, and Lisa Brugger Quier, ex-vice president at McArthur Glen. The company already has two other malls in the development pipeline at Arlandstaad and Landskrona in Sweden, and it plans as many as 20 across Europe over the next five years.
It has a standing agreement with fund manager Pricoa to finance all of its projects.
