An ambitious project to develop Denmark’s largest and second only Outlet Centre has been announced by Danica Pension, the investment arm of Denmark’s largest bank, Danske Bank. The 16,000 sq.m Copenhagen Designer Outlets, designed by award-winning architects Haskoll, is located alongside the well-known City 2 shopping centre on the outskirts of Copenhagen.
The project, due for completion in March 2013, will be undertaken by Danica Pension, in co-operation with its shopping centre management arm, Danica Ejendomme. It has appointed UK-based designer outlet specialist Ream International as the development, management and leasing consultant on the project.
The project will be Denmark’s largest designer outlet centre and is to be created in an existing enclosed environment to comprise no less than 80 store units.
Steve Armitage, managing director, of Ream International said: “We believe this will provide a tremendous boost to City 2 and Copenhagen, with shoppers having access to the very best in international fashion retailing at an affordable price.
“The tenant mix will comprise high quality international and Scandinavian brands carefully chosen to create the optimum shopping experience. There is already a high level of interest in CDO generated by preliminary marketing efforts which is set to further increase following the official marketing launch at the annual MAPIC retail property event in Cannes, South of France, this November,” added Armitage.
Bjarke Bendix Cloos, Senior Vice President in Danica Pension. ”The conditions for Copenhagen Designer Outlets are optimum. City 2 is one of the capital’s largest centres with thousands of free parking bays and excellent connections to both the S-train and buses. The investment is part of the plans to make the Høje Taastrup area west of Copenhagen even more attractive,”
A street-style layout will be created internally using high quality materials and finishes to reflect the stature of the designers and high quality brands occupying the store units.
Derek Barker, managing director at Haskoll, said: “The new Copenhagen Designer Outlets is an excellent reuse of a redundant retail space which formerly housed a hypermarket and Eigiganten, the Danish electrical retailer.”
There are over 3,000 parking spaces already on site and the exterior fabric and landscape is being upgraded to reflect the quality of the designer outlet offer.
A dramatic new entrance is being created fronting the scheme with a second entrance adjacent to the entertainment offer comprising approx. 4,000m2 of restaurants, a play area and a 10-screen cinema.
The location already attracts 4 million visitors a year and with Ikea and other major “big box” retailers nearby the area is a well known shopping destination for the whole of Denmark and international tourists.
It is estimated that Copenhagen Designer Outlets will attract some 1.5 million visitors in the first year.
City 2 was opened on 30 October 1975 at 12 pm. Copenhagen Designer Outlet is scheduled to open in Spring 2013.