One Fashion Outlet invests in Slovakia - First Slovak outlet center

Trnava town tower

Planning of the much-anticipated One Fashion Outlet by property development specialists, Realiz is now underway. Working closely with retail factory outlet specialists at Rioja Developments, the 75 million euro investment in Voderady near Trnava, will be Slovakia’s first premium retail outlet centre and is set to create over 350 new jobs in the region.

Designed in conjunction with leading architects Holder Mathias and consultants Rohleder Lumby and SJ International, One Fashion Outlet will provide consumers with an area of 220 thousand square metres, within which will be over 100 retail and restaurant units comprising more than 36 thousand square metres. The design will feature a leisure area with a lake a children’s playground and a three-thousand vehicle car park surrounded by landscaping.

With Slovakia recently posting the best GDP growth in the EU (a rise of 4.6 per cent year-on-year for the second quarter) and forecasts for the remainder of 2010 looking strong, commercial investment in the country is an attractive option. Outlet shopping, in particular, is very popular with customers in Slovakia enabling buyers to purchase attractive high-quality branded products at affordable prices and is an important distribution channel for the brands.

The development of One Fashion Outlet will take place over three separate phases, with phase one providing consumers with 60 to 70 retail units featuring some of the world’s most attractive brands. Designed by Holder Mathias, One Fashion Outlet will be following a set of Sustainability Guidelines at each stage of the project. The guidelines are intended to help implement good environmental design in retail projects and cover a wide range of measure including water use, energy sources, materials and construction techniques as well as ecology and the long-term sustainability effects of the outlet. The outlet is scheduled to open at the end of 2011.

Vladimír Kozár, Project Manager for One Fashion Outlet is delighted to be introducing outlet shopping to Slovaks, who would previously have travelled to Austria and the Czech Republic. He commented: “The idea for One Fashion Outlet came from the desire to create a convenient shopping environment that Slovaks didn’t need to travel abroad to enjoy. It’s been exciting to see the project develop from the very beginning, working alongside well-known foreign consultants and architects who have implemented a number of successful outlets all over Europe. Thanks to the strong relationships with our partners, One Fashion Outlet will meet all the necessary attributes of a successful outlet: strategic location with excellent access, desirable tenants and a unique architectural concept. We’ve already received very strong interest from many international brands.”

One Fashion Outlet expects to attract a yearly average of between 1.5 and 2 million visitors from Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, a figure that is considered highly achievable due to the centre’s convenient location. The municipality of Voderady near Trnava was selected as the best option due to its strategic positioning on the D1 motorway linking Bratislava with the north and east of Slovakia. According to a survey by GFK, the catchment area of this location is 6.7 million people with a travel time within 2 hours to the outlet.

“This investment will create more than 350 new jobs and provide the residents of Voderady with great leisure facilities. The municipality’s Mayor set strict conditions that this project should provide a pleasant environment and leisure opportunities for its inhabitants, featuring green areas, biking trails and generally revive the local area. We’re pleased to say that we are able to meet all these conditions and the new outlet is being received with great enthusiasm by both international brands and local country franchisees,” stated Simon Rohleder of international property consultants, Rohleder Lumby.

One Fashion Outlet submitted its project to the Slovak Ministry for the Environment for the EIA process and a request for the zoning decision in April. If the construction permit is issued according to the investor’s plans, construction of the outlet should start in early 2011 and phase one of the project should be launched in late 2011.

One Fashion Outlet will be exhibiting at Mapic in Cannes from 17 to 19 November

SOURCE: VPO and PR Newswire