There are eight shopping centres in Bialystok including two outlets. As for July this year the vacancy rate reached 3.6 %, which means an increase of 0.3 p.p. relative to December 2016.
Alfa Centrum, the only prime shopping centre in the city, enjoys high frequency of visits, good tenant mix, low vacancy rate and interesting architecture. Among the novelties we can find the Piotr i Paweł supermarket (takeover of the premises after Alma supermarket), Fun Park - the children’s playground (opening in Q3 2017) and the co-working space. The wide offer of the centre makes it frequently visited by foreigners from across the eastern border.
High footfall is also noted by the Atrium Biała shopping centre, which is a record holder in Bialystok in terms of number of stands – as for July there were more than 40 of them. The third shopping centre in Bialystok is Galeria Jurowiecka, which is still struggling to gain a good position on the market. The centre suffers from a large number of vacant spaces and low frequency of visits.
The recently expanded Auchan Hetmanska shopping centre has become more attractive, with more customers and full parking. In the newly built part of the facility, apart from shops like H&M, Toys R Us, Smyk, Martes Sport and English Home, a food court, children’s playground, co-working space and a multimedia area were built. Auchan Produkcyjna, popular for its good location, presents itself much more modestly. It is also worth to observe the changes that will take place in the Zielone Wzgorze shopping centre, where a part of the building is closed due to the ongoing extension.
Competition between Bialystok’s outlets makes it impossible for any facility to be considered as dominant. Outlet Center Bialystok presents a significant level of vacancy despite the fact that it uses additional traffic generated by the nearby shops – Castorama and Agata Meble. Outlet Bialystok has improved its rental level and attracted customers with unusual marketing campaigns (e.g. food truck rally in July). Both outlets are eagerly visited by foreign customers from across the eastern border.