Tyumen Shopping Centers Evolve Through Redevelopment

No new quality shopping centers have been built in Tyumen for several years. According to Natalia Devyatkova, vice president of the Russian Guild of Managers and Developers, this is due to a shift in consumer preferences and the rapid development of online shopping.

Natalia Devyatkova provided the following data: «In the last two years, we have not built a single square meter of quality retail space, remaining at the level of 550 m² per 1000 residents. And mostly, all our retail real estate is in the Leninsky district, while the most undervalued is the Kalininsky district. Last year [2025], we recorded growth in both leasing and sales by 9%: on average 1,606 rubles per square meter (lease, approx. $18 at current rates) and 159,000 rubles (sale, approx. $1,800 at current rates).»

The old model of visiting a shopping center — «come in, update your wardrobe, have a snack, leave» — is a thing of the past. Now, multifunctional centers are in demand, where retail areas are combined with beauty salons, fitness clubs, cinemas, and food courts. The key way to avoid closure is redevelopment.

Natalia Devyatkova elaborated: «We are turning shopping and entertainment centers into entertainment and shopping centers, and they are finding tenants, but in a different function. Experience operators are now filling shopping centers. We [in Tyumen] do not have an oversaturated market for shopping malls; the existing ones are quite enough. I don»t think new ones will appear, and they are not needed: we are moving towards multifunctional centers. The market has changed.«

Evgeny Burdenyuk, General Director of the GK «Otelit» (Hotelit Group), shares the opinion about the evolution of the format. «Shopping centers are not dying. Outdated formats are dying. Over the past three to five years, the commercial real estate market has undergone a significant transformation. However, the need for offline retail has not disappeared; it has evolved. Shopping centers are growing in foot traffic, but at the same time, their profitability is falling. Why? The shopping center is turning into an entertainment venue. The entertainment sphere attracts more people, but the profit from them is lower than it used to be from the fashion industry,» he explained.

Burdenyuk added that creating new shopping centers under current conditions is unprofitable due to rising construction costs and declining profitability, but in the foreseeable future the situation may change.