Designing or adapting properties to be of mixed use, offering more entertainment options and mixing in an adequate way the type of tenants to whom the premises will be rented, are strategies that could give a new boost to shopping centers.
The pandemic drove consumers away from shopping centers, as government home quarantines in the region, the rise of e-commerce, and bans on people from visiting these facilities significantly affected mall operations.
In Costa Rica, in January 2021, the second tower of the Escazú Village complex will be inaugurated, which will initially have WeWork and Veinsa Motors as tenants.
For the construction of the second tower, which has 11 levels and an extension of 20 thousand square meters, Portafolio Inmobiliario, the company that developed the project, invested $32 million.
The change in consumer habits resulting from the boom in e-commerce and the preference for avoiding visits to physical stores, has forced some large commercial surfaces to be transformed into storage and logistics areas.
The covid-19 outbreak caused the emergence of a new commercial reality, in which consumers are less willing to go to physical stores to make certain purchases and prefer to store online.
From January to June 2020, 57 environmental impact studies were presented for the construction of commercial buildings in Central American countries, and most of them are concentrated in Costa Rica and El Salvador.
The interactive platform "Construction in Central America", of the Trade Intelligence Unit of CentralAmericaData, includes an updated list of public and private constructionprojects that present environmental impact studies (EIS) to the respective institutions in each country.
Because the supply of office and commercial buildings has increased, and at the same time unemployment has also risen, in Costa Rica the directors of these properties foresee that next year the parties will have to renegotiate the contracts.
Data collected by Colliers International indicate that between June 2019 and the same month in 2020 the total inventory of commercial buildings increased by 1.5% from 1.16 million m2 to 1.18 million m2.
As a result of the crisis, in Costa Rica in June of this year the rate of availability of premises in shopping centers climbed to 11.8%, a proportion of concern because a healthy level should not exceed 10%.
As of August 17, Panamanian shopping centers will reactivate their operations, but only through online sales and consumers will only be able to withdraw their products, a modality that does not generate enough income to cover the costs of the shops.
Arguing that the dynamic evolution of covid-19 has changed the socio-economic conditions of the population, a decree was issued to modify the rule that suspends evictions and launches, for the duration of the health emergency.
After more than four months of closure due to the covid-19 outbreak, shopping malls in Guatemala received the endorsement to start serving their customers and as of July 31 have reactivated their operations.
With the publication of Ministerial Agreement 187-2020, the Health Alert System for the covid-19 epidemic was made official, which includes four alerts: red or maximum, orange or high, yellow or moderate, and green (new normal).
Since 2017, commercial activity in Costa Rica has been slowing down, but with the closures of businesses due to the covid-19 outbreak, between March and July of this year, sales have fallen considerably.
In this context of restrictions on movement and social distancing measures, which began in March of this year, approximately 30% of shops were reported to have closed and it is estimated that just in July, sales in the commercial sector fell by 68% compared to the same month in 2019.
Using technology to measure the flow of visitors, reducing the furniture available in the food courts and implementing product deliveries in the parking area are part of the changes that the region's shopping centers must apply in this new reality.
Because of the threat of the spread of covid-19, since mid-March in Central America, the authorities agreed to close the shopping centers. So far, in Costa Rica, they have already reopened, in El Salvador they will be operating again in the coming weeks and in the case of Guatemala, it is not yet defined when this sector will be allowed to reactivate.
After almost 100 days of restrictions on the mobility of people and the closure of some productive activities, the Guatemalan private sector is asking the authorities to start evaluating the gradual opening of businesses under strict protocols.
Due to the outbreak of covid-19, the authorities decreed the closure of several economic activities since mid-March, and up to date restrictions to the operation of some sectors are still in place.
At the beginning of the covid-19 outbreak in most of the region's real estate markets, interest in commercial investments decreased, but in recent weeks the decline stopped and in some countries increases are already being reported.
Through a system that monitors changes in consumer interests and preferences in Central American countries in real time, developed by CentralAmericaData, it is possible to project short and long term demand trends for the different products, sectors and markets operating in the region.
As a result of the crisis, the unemployment rate of commercial premises in Costa Rica rose from 8.81% to 9.86%, and the average price per square meter fell by 3%.
It is estimated that 20% of the stores located in the country's malls will not be able to open after the most critical phases of the covid-19 outbreak are overcome, according to Colliers' figures.
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