THE LOCATION OF SHOPPING CENTRES IN THE METROPOLITAN
AREASOF SPAIN: A NEW CLUSTER MODEL?
Armando Ortuño Padilla, Town Planning and Land Use Planning Lecturer, Building and
Urbanism Department, University of Alicante.
email: [email protected]
José Ramón Navarro Vera, Town Planning and Land Use Planning Professor, Building and
Urbanism Department, University of Alicante.
Raúl Rosa Cintas, Town Planning and Land Use Planning Lecturer, Building and Urbanism
Department, University of Alicante.
Carles Bas Coloma, Town Planning and Land Use Planning Lecturer, Building and
Urbanism Department, University of Alicante.
Keywords: metropolitan areas, shopping centres, clusters, Spain.
Abstract
This paper presents part of the results of a research study carried out by the Building and
Urbanism Department of the Universidad de Alicante regarding the location of shopping
centres opened in the last decade in the southeast of Spain.
The justification for this subject matter is the opening of numerous shopping centres in the
metropolitan areas of Valencia, Alicante and Murcia since the 1990s.
The analysis of these operations shows that new strategies to determine the location of
shopping centres have been detected. In the last few years most of shopping centres have
been built near each other and next to the main crossroads. This research aims to establish
the main interests behind these locations: Is it to take advantage of locations with high
accessibility by car or to form a cluster model looking for agglomeration economies -i.e. to
generate synergies among them-?
In this sense, the first step was to classify the malls according to size, offer of services
(leisure, food, clothes, etc.), specialisation (the centre only offers clothes or furniture,
leisure, etc.), and the location itself (outside the city, linked to the urban weave or in the
city centre).
After classifying the shopping centres in the three metropolitan areas and testing the cluster
model hypothesis, more than 200 questionnaires were applied to visitors of a specialised
shopping centre (statistically significant). The survey investigated visitors’ profile, reasons
for coming to the shopping centre, visiting other shopping centres in the same metropolitan
area, mode of transport used to reach the shopping centre, frequency of the visit, etc.
Finally, the survey results indicate that the complementary shopping centres seek to form a
cluster model based on agglomeration economies. This is the case of IKEA, Outlet Centres
(specialised centres) and the mixed shopping centres. Hence, on the one hand, the cluster
model is not extended to the all shopping centres located in the metropolitan areas, i.e.
mixed shopping centres use road accessibility and size to compete with each other (the
newest mixed shopping centre, the biggest). On the other hand, mixed malls benefit from
the closeness of the specialised ones.
Thereby, future specialised shopping centres are being designed to be physically linked to
mixed shopping centres in order to guarantee the property of the whole mall development
and to benefit from the retail expenditure attracted by the macro shopping centre, projected
as a strategy of agglomeration economies. This is the case of the current proposal to open
shopping centres in the metropolitan area of Alicante, other areas of Spain and even in
other countries.
Evolution and size
The opening sequence of shopping centres in Spain, which began around the 1980s with
small and medium sized malls, increased from 2000 onwards, and during this time more
than 57% of the total GLA implemented since 1981 was accumulated, with a growing
average GLA due to the introduction of new uses and activities related to leisure. That
process is more intense in Alicante-Elche and Murcia than in Valencia (Table 1).
Table 1. Size comparison of the shopping malls located in the metropolitan areas of Valencia, Alicante and
Murcia. Source: own creation based on data from the Spanish Shopping Centre Association (AECC according
to its initials in Spanish), 2010.
Classification
Size
(m2)
Very large
> 79,999
Valencia Alicante Murcia
3
-
1
Total GLA
(m2)
475,160
79,999 4
2
1
343,418
40,000
39,000 Medium
2
4
1
240,300
20,000
19,999 Small
5
1
6
151,657
5,000
Total GLA (m2)
690,421 262,083 289,031 1,241,535
2
Average GLA (m ) 49,316 37,440 32,115
Large
Agglomeration economies and IKEA Centre
It is worth analysing whether the agglomeration of malls has been motivated by the
search for economies of agglomeration (external and internal economies of scale urbanisation and localisation economies-)1 or whether the different shopping centres are
actually competing with each other.
To ask this question, the example of the metropolitan area of Murcia has been selected.
Figure 1 and Table 2 contain purpose-created map that shows the spatial distribution of
malls in the Metropolitan Area of Murcia and the main characteristics of them. It is easy to
observe the accessibility as a key factor to determine the location of the shopping centres.
Likewise, the opening of IKEA, in the same year as the biggest ones; Thader and Nueva
Condomina deserves to be analysed.
Table 3 depics the year opening of IKEA in Spain in relation to other shopping centres
around. In the first generation, IKEA opens its doors after being successful the previous
shopping centres around. In the second generation, the case of Murcia, IKEA opening is
simultaneous to the other malls due to IKEA understands that its brand it is enough strong
to start since the beginning of the development. In the third generation, as projected in
Alicante and partially in Valencia, IKEA is the main developer not only of IKEA but the
rest of shopping centres around because IKEA attracts other shopping just because of its
well-known brand.
Figure 2 shows the location of the IKEA proposal which includes 125.000 m2 GLA,
30.000 for IKEA centre and the rest of them for medium and small shops rented to other
brands.
These conclusions are supported by the results of a survey at IKEA, which found out
that 17.5% of the visitors to IKEA also visited other large shopping centres in the area
(Consultora de Actividades Técnicas, 2010). In this sense, the results of a survey in other
specialised one, an Outlet shopping centre, shown that almost the 40% of the visitors
visited other non specialised shopping centres in the Metropolitan Area of Murcia.
However, these economies of localisation are not observed among the rest of shopping
malls which prefer to compete against each other based on internal economies of scale,
while there is constant tendency to increase the GLA of the new large shopping centres as a
competitive strategy. Thus, Nueva Condomina and Thader, opened in 2006, exceed very
widely the size of the older malls and seek to exploit the comparative access advantage
provided by their privileged location within the road network with respect to other regional
retail areas. Likewise, another mall opened in September 2012 in Orihuela-Costa, 40 km
1
According to various authors(like Rosenthal and Strange, 2008), the economies of agglomeration are divided into:
−External economies of scale. They appear when long run average costs decrease in response to the increase in the
size of the city or the size of a city's industry. The economies where the size of the city has an impact on productivity are
also known as urbanisation economies, while the economies where the increase of the size of the industry impacts the
productivity costs are also known as localisation economies.
−Internal economies of scale. They appear when the average costs in a company decrease as a result of the
increase in the level of activity of the company.
from Murcia, has 80,000m2 of GLA (immochan.com, 2012), which is also larger than the
GLA of the first shopping centres opened in that area in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Figure 1. Shopping centres location in the Metropolitan Area of Murcia. Source: own research
Table 2. Characteristics of the shopping malls in the Metropolitan Area of Murcia. Source: own research
based on data from AECC, 2010.
Mall
Atalayas
Carrefour
Zaraíche
EroskiInfante
Nueva
Condomina
Thader
Zig-Zag
El Tiro
IKEA
TOTAL
Opening
GLA
(m2)
Nº of
shops
Parking
places
1993
30,928
47
1,800
1985
11,080
24
1,482
1988
12,572
29
900
2006
118,160
204
5,503
2006
2005
2009
2006
67,000
12,000
70,000
27,000
289,031
133
23
138
1
609
6,500
660
2.637
1.000
Figure 2. IKEA development plus shopping centres location in the Metropolitan Area of Alicante. Source:
own research.
Table 3. Evolution of IKEA opening in Spain in relation to other shopping centres around. Source:
own research based on on data from AECC, 2010.
OPENING
IKEA
OPENING
YEAR
METROPOLITAN
AREA
NAME (YEAR OPENING)
G.L.A.
DEVELOPER
Conclusions
It is detected the emergence of a new generation of large shopping centres with
specialised and diversified retail offer in most of the metropolitan areas of Spain
looking for maximising the benefits. These large establishments should be designed as
structural parts of the metropolitan territory in order to generate synergies with other
private and public activities.
The laws regulating the conditions to open shopping centres have also begun to
regulate the location of these establishments. The 2011 trade law of the Valencian
Community proposed placing shopping centres preferably in consolidated areas and
next to the main road network and the large corridors of high-performance public
transport (article 32.3) (DOCV, 2011).
Factors that support the opening of a shopping mall in consolidated areas include
shorter travel times by car and the possibility of increasing arrivals by foot and by
public transport. Conversely, this opening can also introduce scale fractures due to the
enormous size of the shopping centre. In this case, the opening of a shopping centre in a
consolidated area can hardly become an articulating piece of the urban space.
Interesting experiences are reported, like the Square One of Mississauga in the area
Metro Toronto where the shopping centre is located in a zone that includes the Town
Hall, a library, a dance and music centre and an over-ground public transport junction,
all located within a newly-created medium and high density residential area.
In summary, the location of a shopping centre is a decision linked to the planning of
urban and metropolitan territories, which should not be decided by developers to suit
their interests, while the local government only manage this decision administratively.
The local planning should introduce regulations based on specific analysis and
diagnostics, which allow the development of a system of retail establishments in all of
their sizes and urban functions, although their efficiency can only come from territorial
approaches that extend beyond the municipal scale.
Bibliography
AECC (2010).Directorio de Centros Comerciales de España 2010.Asociación Española
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Consultora de Actividades Técnicas (2010).Estudio de movilidad de la modificación del
Plan Parcial del sector único de la homologación sectorial “Las Lagunas de
Rabassa”, Alicante.
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http://www.immochan.com/upload/projet/SHOPPING%20VILLAGE%20%20ALICANTE.pdf.
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