Italian group to build first Russian outlet

The first Russian outlet will be built in St Petersburg by Italy's Margheri Group, which operates in the real estate and construction sector. It is counting on the leisure time requirements of five million residents and the entertainment needs of the three million tourists who visit the city every year, many of them coming from nearby Finland as well as from America, France, Germany and Italy.

The effects of the one-hundred-million-dollar investment will start to be seen in 2008, when the building will come into operation under the name of 'Nevskij Colosseum', in honor of the commander who defended St Petersburg from Mongol invasion in the 13th century.

'Not only will the outlet be a large shopping center with 230 stores on two floors and an area of 55,000 square meters', said the president of the Tuscany-based company Mario Margheri, and head of development Renzo Bartoloni, 'it will also have two other attractions that will make it different: a sea, which we'll call the Riviera, for entertainment, and a basic general set up that will be inspired mainly by Made in Italy because of the prevalence of Italian brands in the shopping area and Italian catering, and because the interior decoration will be architecturally-reminiscent of Rome, Milan, Florence and Venice'.

The 'sea' will be as big as the San Siro stadium and will consist of a maxi-pool 100 meters long and 30 meters wide with a water depth of 1.20 meters. It will have a real beach with cabins, loungers, games, a private club, palm trees, sun beds, massage centers and bars looking out onto squares and panoramic views with evocative names like Capri, Positano, Portofino and so on. It will even be possible to get a suntan thanks to the artificial systems that will create sunlight. All this will give the impression of being at a real coastal resort for a population that's used to eight-month-long winters and aspires to spending holidays in Italy (Rimini, Versilia) or Egypt (Red Sea).

The outlet will have 1500 employees and will be built on agricultural land next to the St Petersburg bypass on the routes for Moscow and Finland; the promoters of the project expect that many of the customers will come from there.

(Source: Ansa)