An unusual aircraft has landed in Ulyanovsk

A new project “Samolet” ("Aircraft" in Russian) will have a great impact on the economics of the city.

On the 14th of April a new Shopping Centre with 20,000 m2 foot area will be launched in Ulyanovsk. “Samolet” is a new project of a commercial property development company DARS.

We interviewed Sergey Sedov, the Managing Director of DARS before the Shopping Centre was opened.

How did you come up with the idea for such a massive shopping centre?

“Samolet” has become a next step in our expansion. Business either moves forward or stops its development and stagnates. We wanted to develop and achieved it. And the timeline for the project is really impressive: a three-storey 20 000 m2 conventional build was erected within one year and six months.

Do you think there is a need for shopping centres of such a scale in the city? People might question the necessity of having so many of them in Ulyanovsk.

Serious marketing research comes before any serious business project. By the analysis of economical situation, sociological researches, having considered other important factors we can make a conclusion on weather a project is going to be successful. We have undertaken such a research and decided that our city needs such a Shopping Centre. City development is logical and natural and that’s how all modern cities look now. We should all be really happy about it!

What should we be happy about? There just will be more overpriced boutiques that are not affordable to most of the people.

That is an absolutely wrong attitude. Let’s start from the prices. It is commonly known that competition results in price decreasing and quality of service improvement. It also busts local business development which improves and becomes more effective.

Such projects also have a great social impact. The building was erected within one year and a half, which means that we secured builders jobs for two seasons. Secondly, we created 1500 retail vacancies. Thirdly, we will host companies, which entered the local market only because of the existence of big scale shopping centre. Launching “Samolet” will also revive advertising market. Additionally, we are planning to improve adjoining territories with the help of our landscape designers. But the most important fact is that now in Ulyanovsk we will not just have a place where you can come and buy some goods but also a place to enjoy. We are going to introduce food court and kids play zone “Star Galaxy” for the first time in Ulyanovsk! Food court – is an open space with different food offering concepts such as “Sbarro”, “Grill master” etc. We will move forward from common plastic and metal seating and will have cosy leather banquette seating.

“Star Galaxy” is definitely something special! Interactive games, festive events, space attractions – one can’t describe it by words, you need to see it by yourself!

And a last question, quite traditional – your plans for the future?

I live on the right side of the river, so I’m a little jealous that this Shopping Centre will be on the other side. The only thing that comforts me is that DARS is planning another massive project on the left river bank. These are our nearest future plans.

10 April 2007

Translated from Russian