Shopping centres: Difference between revisions

Shopping centres did exist before 1989 – every citizen then knew the famous first western-like Kotva Retail House for example. Nevertheless the massive expansion of this shopping phenomenon began after the revolution in 1989 as a result of joining the global market. Prague being the capital city forms a kind of bridge between the national and foreign market and therefore it has been the most affected globalisation and internationalisation. The service sector has grown rapidly whereas industry was left behind, which resulted in the existenceof  brownfields in several areas. The most visible recent urban tendency is suburbanisation including outward migration and commercialisation. Stores, logistic centres and shopping areas have been built. As I mentioned in the foreword, the area standard of Prague has the value of 0,87 m² per citizen. The total number of shopping centres in the capital is 38, their area present 33% of the national shopping centre area (CBRE, 2010).

''Figure 1 shows that shopping centres experiencied a steep increase in construction in the year 1998. The peak was in 2008, which is the year of opening of big Prague shopping centres like Arkády Pankrác (40 000m²) or the afore mentioned Fenix Gallery (12 000m²). Most of the new construction was located in smaller towns however - the focus of investors moved out of cities to these less saturated regional towns.&nbsp;<ref>http://www.ct24.cz/ekonomika/12186-boom-nakupnich-center-se-presouva-do-regionu/</ref> The graph shows there has been a decreasing tendency in the last two years. In 2010, the financial crisis was manifestated in construction perhaps even more than in others fields, as only one shopping centre opened in Prague(Harfa Gallery).&nbsp;