Hamburg’s HafenCity is one of the world’s most important urban development projects. Southern Überseequartier will form its vibrant core from 2022 on: a mixed-use district with creative and pioneering concepts for working, living, enjoyment, and shopping.

Champion, the authentic athletic apparel retailer, is to open its first UK outlet store and has chosen London Designer Outlet (LDO) in Wembley Park as the best place to be. London’s leading fashion and lifestyle outlet centre continues to attract new and diverse brands to its tenant mix, having also signed cosmetic retailer, Beauty Outlet.

Longmartin Properties Ltd, a joint venture between Shaftesbury and The Mercers’ Company, has announced the completion of the £10 million refurbishment of 143 Long Acre in London. The building is situated at the gateway to Covent Garden from Leicester Square and comprises a flagship retail store and five floors of office space.

LabTech, owner of Camden Market in London, has opened Italian Alley, a new dining concept which showcases five different Italian eateries to form a hub, dedicated to providing modern Italian cuisines.

Spaces, the global supplier of creative working environments, and part of the IWG group, has leased 2,700 sq m in the mixed-use Wroclavia centre. Experts from JLL advised Spaces on the negotiation of lease terms. The developer – Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield – was represented by Knight Frank.

The Lebanese nut retailing company Al Rifai is showcasing its “Flies you Nuts” pop up concept stage at Frankfurt Airport in Z Main Non-Schengen from April until July 2019.

The newly developed food and entertainment area “Foodtopia” at MyZeil in Frankfurt opened its doors to customers for the first time on April 11, 2019. The unique concept which has been planned and realized by shopping center expert ECE takes up operations about one year after construction began.

Slovenia’s most modern shopping center, ALEJA, which is being built in the Šiška district of Ljubljana, will open next year.

Real estate investor and manager Cromwell Property Group has promoted Wouter Zwetsloot to Head of Real Estate in Europe.

Anna Bartoszewicz-Wnuk, Anna Młyniec, Agata Sekuła and Savvas Savva have been appointed Members of the Management Board of JLL in Poland. All four of them join Tomasz Trzósło (Managing Director & President of the Management Board), Małgorzata Żółtowska and Kazimierz Kirejczyk (Vice-Presidents) to strengthen JLL’s position on the real estate market in Poland.

Cano in Singen keeps taking shape: The preparations on the building site are almost complete. The construction on the actual shopping center building and the surrounding area in the city center of Singen will commence in April. At the same time, the leasing of the shop spaces is ongoing: More than 70 percent of the shops have already been leased.

The Store Makers of umdasch, Austria, are taking over the digital signage specialists Gundlach SEEN MEDIA, which has its headquarters in Germany. The acquisition of this company strengthens umdasch’s competence as a supplier of digital solutions at the point of sale.

PATRIZIA Immobilien AG, the global partner for pan-European real estate investment, has acquired a portfolio of 27 retail properties across Germany from Marathon Asset Management for around EUR 100 million on behalf of PATRIZIA Retail Opportunity SCS fund, increasing the portfolio of retail assets PATRIZIA manages across Europe to around EUR 8.3bn.

Following the news from 9 April, 2019 that Debenhams has fallen into administration, Sofie Willmott, Senior Retail Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view:

In May, Synsam will open a new store on the upper floor of Femman – one of the most central retail locations in Gothenburg in the Nordstan shopping centre.

Herman Ze German, the popular German eatery, has opened its first UK venue outside of London with Hammerson at Birmingham’s Grand Central.

Travel Retail Italiana, a subsidiary of Gebr. Heinemann, on Friday officially opened a 200 sq m shop in the new and second terminal building (Terminal C) at Catania-Fontanarossa Airport in Sicily.

NEINVER has welcomed 100,000 visitors to Silesia Outlet in Gliwice, Poland, during the first week since the opening of the centre on 27 March. The most popular day was Sunday with nearly 19,000 visitors.

Yet another country was added to the JYSK world map, when the first store in Cyprus opened in Nicosia Mall on April 6,2019.

The LVMH group’s brand, Sephora, which is present in 5 out of 6 Wereldhave shopping centres in France, covering nearly 2,000 sq m, is re-engaging for a 10-year period. Sephora is the market leader in beauty products in France and is present at Côté Seine in Argenteuil, Docks 76 and St Sever in Rouen, Mériadeck in Bordeaux and Rivétoile in Strasbourg.

The first store of the French chain Decathlon with an area of 2500 sq m was opened in Kiev in Retail Park Petrovka, on Stepana Bandery Avenue, 15-G.