Developers began to open food halls in their residential complexes

Against the backdrop of the growing popularity of the concept of food halls, where many catering operators gather, housing developers are interested in such projects. LSR Group will open such an object in its Zilart residential complex in the south of Moscow. Experts, noting the significant potential for growth in this segment, warn that most of the projects opened recently were closed due to inefficiency.

The structure of Andrey Molchanov’s LSR Group of Companies “Zilart Mall” registered the rights to the trademark “Zilart.Eda”, follows from SPARK data. As the regional director for commercial real estate of LSR JSC explained to Kommersant. Real Estate — Moscow” by Irina Artemova, this trademark will become part of the Zilart Department Store project, which is planned to open in one of the buildings of the residential complex of the same name in the south of Moscow. Within its framework, she continues, it is planned to open a food hall and other spaces that will be supervised by LSR Group of Companies, but they will be managed by a third-party company.

Alexey Vanchugov, managing partner of Vanchugov & Partners, notes that by managing the project on his own, the developer could save up to 20% on capital costs and 15-20% on the profit of a professional manager. But this is a conditional economy, he admits, since in the absence of competence it is difficult to create a successful project. If the project in Zilart is effective, the developer can replicate it in other residential complexes, says RETEX managing partner Polina Zhilkina.

StrEAT founder Maxim Popov says that there are now more than 80 gastromarkets in Moscow, of which only 12% can be called effective from a business point of view. A large number of food halls have opened in the last five to seven years, but most of them have already closed, adds CEO Ricci | Blackstone Evgeny Kuzmin. Pavel Lyulin, Vice President of the Union of Shopping Centers, recalls that food halls are a relatively new direction, in which there are not so many professionals yet.

Structures of housing developers have recently begun to open their own food halls more and more actively. For example, such facilities were opened in Mesto Vstrechi leisure centers managed by ADG Group. A similar project was launched by Alexandra Klyachin’s KR Properties in the Krasnaya Roza business district in the center of Moscow. Level Group also announced such objects in its residential complexes in 2020.

Separately from the main gastromarket business, PIK Group of Companies by Sergey Gordeev also launched. So, the structure of the group in 2019 opened such an object on Balchug Street in the center of Moscow, but now the project is closed. Now the only food hall opened by the developer in the Salaris shopping center in New Moscow is operating.

According to Nikoliers, now in Moscow food halls and gastronomic spaces occupy about 90 thousand square meters. m. Consultants expect that in 2023 projects will be launched for another 43 thousand sq. m. m, which is a record value for the entire history of observations.

The first facilities with this concept were originally opened in the city center, but today you can find many food halls in residential areas, says Natalya Korotaeva, director of tenant relations management at ADG Group. But while the market is not too saturated with food halls. The owner of Eat Market gastromarkets, Vladislav Zemsky, says that now in Moscow, projects of this concept occupy only 2–2.5% of the public catering market. He is sure that the niche has a chance to take 10-15% in the industry.

Food halls are starting to compete with other catering facilities. According to Focus Technologies, in January-July 2023, the number of orders in food halls in Moscow turned out to be 1% lower year-on-year, and due to an increase in the average check by 3%, revenue was above 2% higher. For comparison: the classic catering outlets in the shopping centers of the capital lost 7% of orders, but the growth of the average bill by 14% increased the players’ revenue by 7%.

Daria Andrianova