Citycon has signed an agreement with the British department store group Debenhams. Debenhams will lease around 3,000 square metres from the Citycon owned, Estonia's largest shopping centre Rocca al Mare in Tallinn. The store will be opened in September 2013.
Citycon announced in June that it has signed an agreement with H&M on its first shops in Estonia. The project will increase the gross leasable area of Rocca al Mare with 4,000 square metres from 53,500 square metres to 57,500 square metres.
There are plans to extend Rocca al Mare within the remaining building option to fulfill the needs of both Debenhams and H&M. The plan is for both new operators to open stores at Rocca al Mare in the autumn 2013.
Debenhams is a British, over 200 year old iconic department store group, with a role as a family department store. Debenhams has 160 stores in Britain and Ireland as well as 69 stores around the world in 24 countries.
Brining Debenhams to our market area has been a target of our team for many years. It is in the core of Citycon's strategy to develop shopping centres into well-functioning and desirable entities. Consumers yearn for more new international brands in shopping centres and I'm especially happy that Citycon can be the one to bring such a high quality chain to the markets, comments Harri Holmström, Senior Vice President of Citycon's Baltic Operations and Leasing.
Debenhams compliments the offering of Rocca al Mare and strengthens its position as a centre aimed especially for families at the same time making it even more unique. A growing amount of Finnish consumers have noticed the versatile shopping possibilities in Estonia and in our shopping centres.
By bringing new operators to the market successfully we can reply to and allure even more Finnish visitors. The free bus transfer between our centres and the harbor is just one example of the way we serve Finnish clients and we aim at putting even more emphasis on serving Finns in the future, states Mati Pops, the Commercial Director of Citycon's Baltic Operations.
