Colombia. In the evolution of shopping centers in Colombia, international factors have played a determining role both for the development of their construction and for the day-to-day operation.
Luis Fernando Castaño Agudelo, founding partner of the company Pro 2 S.A.S., affirms that Colombia has traditionally been carrying out commercial developments under the model of co-ownership, where the premises are sold to private investors and these in turn, lease them to each brand; which has led to the legislation in these aspects being quite robust and developed, allowing the model to work satisfactorily, with some exceptions.
For a few years now, with the arrival of important international players in the real estate market, who are developers and in turn operators in a uni-property model, new challenges have been generated for co-ownership projects, since the current bets of the same, are mostly for rent.
These new models would seem to be the current and future general trend, which would gradually leave behind what has been done to date in Colombia. However, the appetite for individual real estate investment is still latent and leads developers to think about how in parallel they can continue to carry out commercial projects that allow the linking of individual investors and remain successful.
Another element to highlight in the dynamics of shopping centers in Colombia has been the participation of retailers in shopping centers.
Good international practices and financial commandments have always managed the premise that retailers must focus their resources on the ordinary turn of their businesses, strengthening their working capital and operating capacity every day. However, in Colombia, this has not been the general rule, since a percentage of them have dedicated a good part of their capital to real estate investment, which have been becoming more sophisticated every day, to create parallel companies that are dedicated exclusively to this activity, which has been quite profitable.
Definitely for a shopping center to be successful, from its conception, it must have two essential elements that are: a very good location and a clear market.
This will allow the concept of the project to be directed towards the demand that has the most relevance, being by far today entertainment one of the components that should not be missing and even, come to have a very high weight within the entire offer.
On the other hand, from the beginning of the project it is mandatory to involve the leaders of the retailers so that together with the design and structuring team, a winning project is managed, thinking both in the population and also in the merchants, the above, will generate all the confidence of the retailers to link as investors and also, of course, as commercial operators.
It is very important that the developer is very careful to restrict the linking of speculative investors and / or non-industry professionals, so that all those involved in the project are "hurting" and direct their efforts towards the same goal.
Another element that will help the success of a shopping center is that the developer seeks from the marketing itself, vehemently, a maketing mix according to the demand and the type of shopping center; it shall influence the definition of locations for each brand, to ensure that there are no cold areas and that the routes are sufficiently attractive to the end-user.
Finally, and within the restrictions that the legislation imposes on it, it must ensure that the governing bodies and the manager of the shopping center are not only executors of instructions from the assembly of co-owners, but that the asset is managed with a business profile and with good international practices.
These are some of the elements that must be taken into account in the positive and successful evolution that is being experienced in the real estate market of shopping centers in the country.
