Isaac Peres featured as a speaker
José Isaac Peres, the president of Multiplan, spoke at the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Brazilian Association of Shopping Centers (Abrasce) on the first day of the 14th International Congress and Exposhopping, which also celebrated the 50 years since the creation of the first shopping center in Brazil. Peres was honored as one of the pioneers in the industry.
Peres participated in the "50 Years of the Shopping Center Industry" presentation with other industry leaders, and described how he decided to shift from real estate to focus on shopping centers in the early 1970s.
“In the 1970s, by the time you were paid for the sale of a project, inflation had already consumed most of the value of the return, leaving little left for reinvestment in a new one. When we built Ibirapuera, still as part of Veplan, we initially planned to sell all the stores. But I did some research and realized that if we rented the stores instead, in 10 years, after we recovered the investment, we would still be receiving payments," recalled Peres.
Also participating in the discussion with Peres, were: the president of Aliansce Shopping Centers, Renato Feitosa Rique; the president of Iguatemi Empresa de Shopping Centers, Carlos Jereissati; the co-president of Ancar Ivanhoe Administradora de Shopping Centers, Marcos Baptista Carvalho; the CEO of Saphyr Administradora de Centros Comerciais, Paulo de Barros Stewart; and the chairman of the Board of Directors of Abrasce, Luiz Fernando Veiga.
When discussing the future of shopping malls and how the advancement of technology, especially in the area of e-commerce, will impact the industry, Peres said: "The shopping center will never go away. The curse of humankind is loneliness, and new technologies are leaving us feeling increasingly isolated. The function of the shopping center is to provide pleasure for people and to give them a meeting place. ‘Shopping’ will increasingly be relegated to a place of secondary importance. Shopping malls have become a place for services and entertainment, where people go to meet. As long as we continue to provide pleasure for people, malls will continue.”
The event included 16 speeches and discussion groups and was attended by national and international leaders in the industry and the economic environment.
Abrasce 2016 Awards
During the first day of the Congress, the 2016 Abrasce honors were awarded. The Multiplan Group won two Silver Medals. BarraShopping received the Silver medal in the Expansion and Revitalization category for "BarraShopping Medical Center Expansion" and ParkShoppingBarigüi won the Silver in the Marketing category for Events and Christmas Sales, with "Magic Christmas.”
With an investment by the Shopping Center of R$ 25,000,000, BarraShopping Medical Center opened its first expansion on April 19. The new area has a GLA of 3,500 m² and 11 new clinics in various areas, adding even more to the array of medical services in the BarraShopping complex. The new specialties include beauty and wellness, cardiology, urology and dentistry, in addition to a modern laboratory with diagnostic imaging.
ParkShoppingBarigüi presented a Christmas jazz & tap dancing special called "Christmas Present.” The event, designed exclusively for the Mall had special choreography, costuming, scenery and arrangements for 14 dancers who danced in Santa's Toy Shop in the central square of the mall, to the sound of a traditional repertoire of Christmas music.
Industry numbers
In 2016, the Shopping Mall industry is celebrating an important milestone in its history: a 50-year path of growth and development of shopping centers in Brazil. From the first Shopping Mall built in Brazil to the present day, the growth in the maturity and professionalization of the industry is evident, and shows how it has become a very important part of the socioeconomic development of Brazil, representing 3% of GDP today.
In 1976, Abrasce began to represent the sector in Brazil, celebrating 40 years of operation in 2016. As the principal representative of Shopping Malls in the country, Abrasce currently has more than 400 members, between shopping centers, entrepreneurs, suppliers of products and services, and retailers.
About Multiplan - Multiplan currently has 18 shopping malls located throughout Brazil: BarraShopping, New York City Center, ParkShoppingCampoGrande and VillageMall, in Rio de Janeiro (RJ); BH Shopping, DiamondMall and Pátio Savassi, in Belo Horizonte (MG); MorumbiShopping, ShoppingAnáliaFranco and ShoppingVilaOlímpia, in São Paulo (SP); JundiaíShopping, in Jundiaí (SP); ParkShoppingSãoCaetano, in São Caetano do Sul (SP); RibeirãoShopping and Shopping Santa Úrsula, in Ribeirão Preto (SP); ParkShopping, in Brasília (DF); ParkShoppingBarigüi, in Curitiba (PR); BarraShoppingSul, in Porto Alegre (RS); and Parque Shopping Maceió, in Maceió (AL). On June 30, the portfolio of shopping centers in operation had a total GLA of 774,568 m², with more than 5,400 stores and annual consumer traffic estimated to be 180,000,000. Multiplan owns an average share of 75.4% in its shopping malls. In addition, the company has two commercial business center complexes with a total GLA of 87,558 m², which when added to the shopping malls makes a total GLA of 862,126 m².
