The largest furniture and interior centre in the Baltic States – Spice will be opened

On 8th November the furniture and interior centre Spice will be opened for the devotees of qualitative furniture and tasteful interiors, and it will be the largest trade centre of such type in the Baltic States. Altogether EUR 20 million have been invested into development of the new Trade Centre, thereby the total of the investments in the trade complex Spice has reached EUR 55 million.

Iveta Lāce, the Director of t/c Spice and the furniture and interior centre Spice: ”The idea about a furniture and interior commodities’ centre emerged as a result of analyzing the market tendencies – noticing the rapid construction of apartments and private houses and that shopping is inconvenient for people, taking into account the heavy traffic in the city. Visiting all the shops for choosing the most appropriate commodities for the home entails great difficulties. So this project developed, which is unique for the Baltic States, where 40 shops of interior and household commodities are located together.

In all 40 furniture and interior commodities’ shops, both brand new and already known in Latvia, are united in a single building with an area of 30 000 square metres. The visitors of the Centre will be able to purchase household commodities, elegant design goods, furniture and many other useful goods for home improvement in one single place.

“The opening of new concept stores in Latvia, the Baltic States and Europe is our major challenge. In all 16 occupiers are opening their first concept stores in Latvia in the furniture and interior centre Spice, and many of them will have the first such stores in the Baltic States, Europe and even in the world. This is the first sales place in Latvia for the Scandinavian brand ISKU and also the brand The Pier, which was established in the USA, will have its first brand store in Europe in Spice, but Esprit Home opens its first concept store in the world,” according to Iveta Lāce, the Director of the centre.

Ģirts Līcis, the Director of GBM Productions, says: “Considering this region and the project of the respective design house as very prospective, Riga and Spice was selected to be the first place in the world, where the salon shop of the brand Esprit Home will be established.”

Interesting specialized stores, or the so called niche stores, are also established in the Centre, e.g., Baltic Chair, which is specialized particularly in the production of chairs, or 4ROOM, which offer Baltic design – lighting fixtures and furniture. Also the popular Italian brand Natuzzi, which is the world’s largest producer of leather furniture, will have its show-room in Spice. Spice represents the best specialized suppliers of window and curtain design – Meka and Dobur, specialized lighting fixtures’ stores, e.g., Hektor Light and Delight, specialized household textile stores, e.g., Tender and Kapuce, whose range of goods will also include linen products, produced in Latvia (further information about all the tenants can be found in the appendix).

The admirers of original and daring interiors will be agreeably surprised by the store The One, which differs with an extravagant and extraordinary concept and which is unique in the entire world – the stores are called theatres, and the shop-assistants are participating there as actors. Many surprising ideas for home improvement will be found in the largest European concept store of interior commodities – Kare.

Several representatives of brands and concepts known in the world consider the new Trade Centre as prospective for development of their business, which have chosen to start their operation in the Latvian market with opening their stores exactly in the furniture and interior centre Spice. The office and home furniture store mööbel.zip, well known and popular in Estonia, and the Finnish brand ISKU will be an agreeable revelation to Latvian buyers. Such stores as Delight, Interio, Inre Scandinavian Design, Skano, Columbini, Hektor light, holtkamp, Home4you, Puustelli, Lemon Loft, and the store Kapuce, whose range of goods also includes linen produced in Latvia, will start their business by opening their first stores in this new centre in Latvia.

Also the brands, which are well-known in Latvia, will be represented in the new furniture and interior centre: Alan Deko, Rito, Nakts mēbeles, Dizaina nams, Meka, Siena, Ripo, TiciMan, Chair Baltic, Dekora, Dobur, Asko/Sotka, Berghoff, Natuzzi, Innovation, Ital sofa, Itehio, Modern Home, Paulmann and Tender.

The majority of the Trade Centre’s area (90 per cent) will be provided for the 27furniture and interior commodities stores, but the remaining space (10 per cent) will have five household textile stores, three specialized stores of lighting fixtures, two crockery stores and two specialized stores of kitchen equipment. Attention in the Centre has also been paid to the feeling of comfort of the buyers, and they will be able to satiate their appetite in the new restaurant The Style, whose interior was developed by the designer Alvis Zemzaris according to theme of Mondrian’s painting, and which will have a wide choice of dishes, which will be prepared in the presence of the client.

Seppo Ilmari Siren, the Director General of ISKU BALDAI, evaluates the advantages and prospective for developing his business, which are provided by the new Trade Centre: “As we have a positive experience in Latvian market for already five years, we decided to expand our business, and this will be our first store in the Trade Centre. We liked the idea of t/c Spice very much – to unite so many sellers of furniture and interior commodities together, thereby relieving the buying process for the client.”

Thomas Lundgren, the owner of The One: ”We see very good prospect for the concept provided by us in the Latvian market. The goal of The One is to be different, therefore we have commenced the revolution in sales to surprise our buyers with collections of household commodities, which are available in limited volume and which look much more expensive, than their actual cost. We believe that the idea – uniting so many furniture and interior commodities’ sellers in one building – is helping not only to save the buyer’s time but it also provides an opportunity to compare the prices of goods and to then choose the most appropriate.

The company E.L.L. Nekustamie īpašumi is the developer of Mēbeļu un interjera centrs Spice, and it mostly specializes in the planning and realization of designs of office buildings, trade centres and hotels. The company has also developed the current t/c Spice.

“The design was implemented in two years time, from the idea to the ready building. We had a productive cooperation with the Architects’ Bureau Tectum and the architect Alvis Zlaugotnis. We aspired to develop the new trade centre as different one among others by its visual execution – rational utilization of building constructions and construction area, parking place has been established on the roof of the centre,” Edgars Miļūns, the Board Member of E.L.L. Nekustamie īpašumi reveals. “By analyzing the market we concluded that the demand for trade areas is even higher than we initially thought, and Riga is missing an appropriate place, where furniture and interior commodities could be purchased conveniently, therefore we expanded the initially planned area of the object by 30 per cent, and currently it reaches 30 000 square metres. T/c Spice is located in a strategically advantageous place, which has large potential for development, therefore construction of an office building is planned to be commenced in 2008, and negotiations on the potential tenants are taking place already now,” Edgars Miļūns says.

By opening the furniture and interior centre Spice the total area of the trade complex has increased even up to 107 000 square metres, and thereby Spice has become the largest trade complex in Latvia.

The Trade Centre Spice has 600 000 visitors per month on average, and it is planned that the majority of the clients of Spice will also visit this sales venue of furniture and household commodities.

The working time of the Centre will be from 10:00 a.m. to 9.00 p.m. everyday.

References: · Volume of investments into the project – EUR 20 million; · Author of the project – Architects’ Bureau Tectum (architect – Alvis Zlaugotnis); · Project developer – SIA E.L.L. Nekustamie īpašumi; · Contractor – SIA Merks; · Turnover of t/c Spice – in 2006 – LVL 56 million, first half-year of 2007 – LVL 35.5 million; · Total investments in the trade complex Spice have reached EUR 55 million; · Sales area of t/c Spice after opening the new centre – 62 000 m2; · Total area of t/c Spice after opening the new centre – 107 000 m2; · 1 800 car can be parked in the parking place of t/c Spice.