Rome, October 5, 2023 – The iconic aisles of the Galleria Alberto Sordi, Rome's historic “drawing room” owned by the Megas Fund (an Italian real estate alternative investment fund for professional investors, owned by Prelios SGR, one of Italy’s leading asset managers and part of the Prelios Group), are to house UNIQLO’s first store in Rome, from the spring of 2024.
The agreement with the popular Japanese brand, which is to open its second Italian flagship store after Milan, is a lease on a three-floor retail unit of more than 1,300 square meters in one of the three areas of the Galleria Alberto Sordi allocated to clothing and accessories, in the strategic corner location in the arcade along Largo Chigi.
In addition to the redevelopment and modernization of the entire property, for the UNIQLO premises the Megas Fund is undertaking work to introduce a series of distinctive elements to characterize the brand, in line with the needs and requests of the tenant.
The arrival of UNIQLO in the Galleria Alberto Sordi will be an important feature of the retail offer and Rome shopping experience and a decisive step in the restoration and repositioning of the iconic building, whose redevelopment and restyling are now nearing completion.
The purpose of the modernization project is to conserve and enhance the Gallery's architectural and historic value while implementing contemporary commercial criteria to improve the retail units by creating modern functional spaces. Special attention has been paid to the lighting to make the building more welcoming. Also, to underscore the Gallery’s role as an important thoroughfare in the city center between Montecitorio and the Trevi fountain, another priority was the integration of the Gallery with its urban surroundings to ensure that it will be not just an attractive shopping mall but also a newly restyled and re-functionalized meeting place that has been returned to the city.
Prelios SGR CEO Patrick Del Bigio said: “We are honored to have been part of a project of such importance for the city and history of Rome with a particularly challenging restoration that has had to combine the historic and artistic features of the Gallery with restyling work to equip the retail units and the common areas with standards of quality that match the requirements of the tenants. We are achieving outstanding results of the highest level, which have enabled us to attract the interest of UNIQLO, about which we are delighted, as well as of other leading national and international brands with whom negotiations on lease agreements are underway. The work will be completed over the next few weeks and will be followed by the gradual handover of the units to the tenants, a decisive new phase for the reopening of retail activities over the coming months and the relaunch of the Galleria Alberto Sordi.”
The promotion and marketing of the premises in the Galleria Alberto Sordi to potential tenants is handled by Dils, a leading real estate company with a team of more than 200 professionals in Milan, Rome and Amsterdam, which is conducting an internationalization program, and Savills, a leading real estate consultancy listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: SVS), which employs more than 40,000 professionals around the world.
The redevelopment project has been assigned to L22 Retail, a business unit of the Lombardini22 Group that specializes in value creation and conservation projects for retail properties.