Olympia Brno will be half larger

Brno - The Brno shopping center Olympia will be half larger starting this September. With an area of 84,000 square meters, it will become the second largest shopping center in the Czech Republic, said its director Pavla Bumbálková to reporters today. The new section of Olympia will primarily offer clothing and furniture, with one of the largest tenants being the department store Kika. The expansion will cost 300 million crowns, and shops in the planned section of the arcade will employ around 400 people.
    The Olympia shopping center has been operating in Brno since 1999, and the current Avion Shopping Park was built nearby at the same time. Both centers are located near the D2 highway, with Avion even at the intersection of D2 and D1. About seven million customers visit Olympia each year. The planned expansion will attract another 500,000 people to Brno.
    Olympia will offer a total of 30 new stores, including several retailers that are not yet in the Czech Republic. Among them is the Swedish number two in the clothing market, Lindex. Kika is already active in the Czech market and is a strategic partner for Olympia. It will help expand the customer base from the current 60 kilometers to as much as 100 kilometers, and the center will gain competition against the IKEA department store located in Avion Shopping Park.
    Among the new additions to Olympia will be an electronics store. After the collapse of the ElektroCity chain, there has not been this kind of merchandise in a standalone store. "A shopping center can exist even without electronics, but this type of merchandise significantly helps, especially in autumn and winter during the pre-Christmas shopping," said Aleš Navrátil, the commercial director of Olympia. The fashion brand NewYorker and outdoor equipment retailer Rock Point will also open a store in Olympia.
    Olympia is expected to resemble the British Blue Water, and in the next phase, a circuit is to be created from the arcade. After that, the center should cover around 100,000 square meters. Additionally, a kind of relaxation zone is planned to grow along the Svratka River behind the department store, Bumbálková plans.