25% OF SHOPPING CENTERS MAY BE CLOSED BY THIS AUTUMN

The Russian Council of the Shopping Centers (RCSC) non-profit organization sent a letter to the Government of the Russian Federation.

The document contains a call for assistance during these times of economic hardship, because due to the pandemic of the coronavirus infection, the shopping centers were simply forced to close at first, and then suffered great losses, because only 10-15% of the stores resumed their work.

Despite the fact that there were numerous requests for support, each of them was rejected, and now, according to the preliminary estimates made by the RCSC, up to 25% of the shopping centers may be closed by this autumn.

There are tax incentives and deferrals, payment of subsidies, as well as the early openings of shopping centers in those regions where so far it is prohibited to open the stores due to the pandemic among the proposals for the support of the industry that have been announced.

According to Oleg Wojciechowski, the managing director of RCSC, the shopping centers have practically no income, it will take time to resume the sales, and the industry has not received any state support. Those insignificant funds that shopping centers receive from their tenants are spent on the mandatory payments, as well as on the maintenance of the shopping centers in good condition.