TENANT MIX - THE MOST IMPORTANT TOOL FOR THE SUCCESS OF SHOPPING CENTERS

Abstract

Shopping centers are a big and growing part of retail real estate markets in Finland. The sales of shopping centers are growing faster than sales in retail sector as a whole being presently about 10 % of total sales (in Finland). In Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA) the 20 biggest shopping centers had the total sales of 2425 MA in 2006. Apart from the fact that the shopping center industry is getting more and more important the academic research of shopping centers is still quite rare. In international research the tenant mix has been stated as the single most important determinant to the success of shopping centers (Greenspan, 1987). The different dimensions of tenant mix should be studied in order to find out which business fileds are most important for the success of the shopping centers. How different business fields are located in the shopping centers and how the shopping centers in Finland are pro-filed? The main objective of this research is to clarify tenants¥ preferences of the most important shopping centers in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA) and why. What kinds of attributes are important for the tenants? For this purpose it is crucial to create extensive (and eventually longitudinal) data compilation about shopping center markets. The most important factors and their effect on the success of shopping centres in HMA will be studied. The results will show which shopping centres are appreciated by the tenants and how these appreciations have been transformed into success in the form of rents in major shopping centers in HMA. The results should suggest/point out the attributes that need to be taken into account when planning and building new shopping centres. This kind of information is very valuable for planners, constructors and owners of shopping centres. All information is important when making a major investment like a shopping centre that affects its whole neighbourhood. The tenant data will be gathered by interviews on business place managers of various retail companies. The companies will be selected so that 80 % of total sales of shopping centers in HMA will be covered. The gathered data will be analyzed with statistical methods of factor, principal component and regression analysis to find out how the users/clients view the shopping centers of HMA. In addition, the GIS tool will be employed in the study. It has not been used in the academic research of commercial real estate in Finland, and therefore this research can be considered one of the forerunners in Finnish GIS research in the field of commercial real estate markets. The dissertation will be written by combining five papers published in well-known international research journals and the summarizing introduction.