(AG Real Estate) Interspeed Shopping Mall Preševo - Modern Retail Concept on the Main Traffic Artery

Projects of shopping centers in Serbia are the least represented projects in the real estate market. They bring forth and establish a new philosophy of business doing, profiling and developing fresh consumer mentality. It particularly refers to the shopping centers located in the hinterland such as Interspeed Shopping Center in Presevo. Having in mind that this shopping mall is only 400 m away from the border crossing, its facilities will certainly be an ideal place for respite, refreshment and interesting shopping for the weaving lanes of passangers who travel from Europe towards Greece and Turkey during the year and especially in the course of the summer months.

At the border crossing Presevo between Serbia and Macedonia, at the motorway E-75 that connects north of Europe with Thessaloniki, a modern shopping center Interspeed Shopping Center with a total area of 20,000 m2 was constructed. This center that comprises a newly built gas station of the Hungarian company MOL functionally represents a completely new retail and catering offer to both travelers and the local population of southern Serbia, Kosovo and northern Macedonia. It is expected that this concept will be an incentive for development of the whole region introducing new business standards.

(MOL gas station)

Conceptual Solution

At the aforementioned location, at the newly formed cadastral plot, the complex with a gas station and a shopping center was built according to the state-of-the-art world standards. The plot has a direct access from the motorway E-75. The gas station is located on the western side of the plot, immediately along the motorway, and the facility of the shopping center is located in the extension of the location and occupies the eastern part of the plot. The common parking area occupies the whole clear area between the gas station and the shopping center and also around the shopping center. 280 parking lots for passanger vehicles and 14 parking lots for coaches are at disposal to the visitors. Access junctions around the complex provide an easy approach to commercial and technical sections of the facility from the back side as well as for fire escape.

The main shopping center entrance-exit has been designed on the front, western side of the building and the ancillary one is on the northern side. The tanks for heating oil, water and gas and the transformer station with a container-like diesel power unit are situated at the back side of the plot, within the green area.

Functional Organization of the Complex

The shopping center has been designed as a rectangular building with Po+P+2 floors of homogenuous volume and exterior dimensions 120.1x44.3 m. The ground floor is on the level of the outdoor pavement. Floor height is +5.0m for the ground and first floor and 3.5m for the second floor. The height of the second floor cordon is 16.25m, which is the highest point of the building.

Functionally the complex has been devided into several entities: commercial space with outlets, public communications, cafes with the belonging sitting area (open air zones, parts of large communication corridors), area with fast food restaurants on the second floor and the area dedicated to technical, management and service rooms located in less attractive parts of the building.

The retails stores with adjoining communications situated on all floors make the main and, at the same time, the greatest part of the shopping center facilities. The special zone with fast food restaurants is located on the second floor in the north-east section of the center, comprising the belonging common sitting zone situated along the glazed façade which allows a panoramic view of the border crossing and the scenery. The section with outlets is connected with a 5m wide corridor within which two open galleries were formed extending from the basement to the second floor.

One gallery is situated opposite the front entrance-exit and the second one is on the left-hand side of the center in the cafe zone overlooking the north-eastern part of the location. With glass roofing lanterns above the galleries, these two gallery areas enable visual connection and vertical illumination of the building. A panoramic elevator, escalators and stairways for interfloor communication are designed inside the galleries. The center contains eighty stores of the surface area ranging from 40 m² to 1,500 m².

The main parts of the complex include:

• Basement - contains a commercial part with outlets, supermarket and a part with ancillary technical rooms;
• Ground floor - contains a commercial part with stores, front and side (north) entrance-exits, official entrances-exits;
• I floor - contains a commercial part with stores, cafes, sanitary block, offices of the center management and technical rooms;
• II floor - indented in relation to the front, west façade occupying a half of the total width of the structure and contains fast food restaurants, central corridor with the sitting area, two separate restaurants, a few stores of small surface area, sanitary rooms, boiler-room and technical rooms.

All commercial spaces are intended for renting and arranged and/or equipped at the level of the so called „grey phase“, which means partition walls without finishing works of the floor, without suspended ceiling and installation switches fitted until the entrance of the store.

Structure

The facility structure is made of precast reinforced concrete elements – pillars and beams in the basic raster of 10.91 x 11.04 m. The foundation of the structure is carried out on isolated footings. Pillar foundations were built in situ with previous erection of precast footing cups. Interfloor structure was carried out as a precast reinforce concrete, combined with precast cavity ceiling, and thus formed interfloor structure was cast in the monolithic fashion with the reinforced concrete slab. The basement wall is of reinforced concrete d=25cm cast in situ and reclines on isolated footings. The second floor structure is made of steel profiles and contains steel pillars and roof R brackets of steel box-like profiles, stiffened with vertical and horizontal steel profile bracings. Staircase and elevator structure for vertical communication within the facility are of reinforced concrete, cast in situ, founded on the slab foundations.

Installations

The market center is equipped with all necessary installations for undisturbed operation of such a facility, including piping and sewage installations, weak and strong current electric fittings, ventilation, heating and air conditioning installations. The building has a common boiler-room that consumes either diesel or gas. In compliance with the regulations, the facility is provided with the fire-alarm system. Installation fitting has been completed until the border line of a store and/or renting space and the tenants are left to install the fittings inside their shops in own arrangement. For the remaining part of the building the installation fittings were fully completed.

Summary of the Surface Areas

Net Surface Area

Basement 5,269.89 m2

Ground Floor 4,875.23 m2

I Floor 4,967.62 m2

II Floor 2,327.95 m2

Total 17,440.69 m2

Basement 5,498.09 m2

Ground Floor 5,309.80 m2

I Floor 5,438.00 m2

II Floor 3,082.87 m2

Total 19,328.76 m2

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