Shopping mall

Police on Tuesday announced the arrest of two suspects believed to be behind at least seven armed robberies carried out in different parts of Attica over the last year-and-a-half.

Works are set to begin on the extension of the River West shopping center on Kifissou Avenue in Aegaleo, western Athens, in the next few days. Sources say the implementation of the 18.5-million-euro investment is close to starting after more than two years of planning.

Mall owners and managers have turned their attention to expanding as well as reconstructing their existing assets, with four such projects currently under way in Attica alone. The total value of these projects comes to more than 80 million euros.

The rental rates of store spaces at shopping centers in Greece are expected to grow throughout 2019 as the rising supply finds itself struggling to play catch-up with the constant increase in demand, according to a survey by Pepper Research.

Demand for modern commercial properties in Bulgaria is at record highs, Colliers International reports. The total utilized area is 21 900 square meters, and thus the first half of the year marks levels not seen since 2015. The analysis includes shopping centers over 10,000 sq.m.

The number of visits to Turkey's more than 400 shopping centers is expected to hit 2.4 billion this year, up from 2.3 billion visits in 2018, according to Hüseyin Altaş, the president of the Council of Shopping Centers (AYD).

The shopping centers' turnover index increased by 14.2 percent in April from a year ago, according to a joint survey released June 10 by the Council of Shopping Centers (AYD) and Akademetre Research.

Smart Park, the shopping complex constructed by REDS, has received a distinction in the "Renovation & Expansion" category of the ICSC European Shopping Center Awards 2019.
REDS is currently proceeding with the second stage of the Spata-based mall's development, expected to be completed this fall.

A Turkish student who had recently enrolled as an exchange student at a university in Poland's Wroclaw city was stabbed to death at a shopping mall, his family members said on March 11.

The new shopping center that the Constantinou Group, which also built the Athens Metro Mall, is planning at Lykovrysi in northern Athens will proceed via the fast-track system as provided for by regulations concerning strategic investments.