HB Reavis’ first Aupark shopping center in the Czech Republic opens to the public
Pan-European developer HB Reavis has officially opened Czech Republic’s first Aupark in Hradec Kralove. The shopping centre brings 120 stores, new international brands, a large food court and various service and entertainment units to the city.
The new 21,000 sq m Aupark in Hradec Kralove is characterised by its modern design, clear layout and excellent visibility of all retail outlets. High quality materials such as wood, glass and stone, as well as natural light permeating the mall have been used to provide a unique customer experience. The shopping center will also offer a spacious food court for up to 300 people with several new restaurants and many top brands such as H&M, New Yorker, Terranova, CCC, Reno shoes, Sportisimo, Euronics DM drogerie, and Billa. Aupark also brings a number of completely new brands such as 4F, Celio, ECCO, Gas jeans, Le Premier, My food market and Superdry.
Located in the U Koruny site, Aupark will be accessible from Hradec Kralove main high street, allowing visibility and accessibility for 18,000 passing cars each day. To accommodate, Aupark is designed to offer a large-capacity garage with 1100 parking spots. What’s more, over 42,000 people use the adjacent bus terminal and train station daily, ensuring significant footfall exposure and vibrancy. The wider area will also benefit from the fact that the shopping centre will act as natural end-point on Gocarova Street.
The city of Hradec Kralove is the Czech Republic’s third largest urban cluster and lies an hour’s drive to the East of Prague. The city has long had one of the highest standards of living in the country and benefits from excellent transportation infrastructure and civic amenities. In spite of this, Hradec Kralove currently has the lowest saturation of retail space among the Czech Republic’s large cities, with approximately 750 sq m per thousand inhabitants.
HB Reavis saw great potential in the location and decided to develop an inner-city shopping centre that benefits from the proximity of major transport nodes. “We’re thrilled to have delivered our first Aupark outside of Slovakia and we’re confident the shopping centre’s brand will provide a great business opportunity for established firms as well as newcomers to the Czech retail market. The idea of the city’s architects to connect something historical at one end with something modern at the other fit perfectly with our aim of bringing an architecturally modern shopping centre to Hradec Kralove that would become a natural part of the whole neighbourhood,” explains HB Reavis Shopping Centre Management Director Marcel Zeleňák.
The construction of the Czech Republic’s only shopping centre to be opened in 2016 took roughly 23 months – from November 2014 to October 2016 – to complete. In addition to opening Aupark, HB Reavis also successfully finished the construction of its latest office building in Prague, the now fully leased Metronom. The company also executed a successful bond issue in May earlier this year.
