Today, at the Retail Annual Congress, the Retail Deed of the Year award was formally presented to Viru Centre for its transformation from a classic fashion-focused mall into a modern, fully functional city heart. In addition to the Retail Deed of the Year award, Viru Centre also won the audience favourite award.
Viru Centre underwent the biggest refresh in its history — 90% of the centre's space was thoroughly renovated and 86 new or renewed stores opened their doors. The classic retail offering is complemented by the unique Food Street and the beauty and health services concentrated on an entire dedicated floor, the Beauty Sphere (Ilusfäär).
According to Nele Peil, managing director of the Merchants' Association, the jury highlighted Viru Centre for setting a new quality standard in retail real estate development, creating a worthy, modern city heart for Tallinn. "Together with the centre's renewal, the retailers leasing space have brought exciting new concepts and solutions to the market, and the environmental friendliness of the renovation work and the centre's top-tier environmental certificates also deserve recognition," Peil said.
According to Gertti Kogermann, managing director of Viru Centre, the centre's aim was "to grow from a traditional fashion-focused shopping centre into a modern, fully functional city heart — the renewed Viru Centre has more comfortable and logical traffic flows, mini atriums have been added to the Tammeaare and Hobujaama entrances, and the centre is made more cosy and spacious by green columns featuring thousands of live plants." "We sincerely thank our customers for their patience and understanding, and even more so the centre's tenants, who all contributed to the new quality and content," Kogermann adds.