On May 20, Warsaw (Poland) hosted an award ceremony for one of the largest real estate competitions in Europe — Central & Eastern European Real Estate Quality Awards 2025 (CEEQA). This year, Arricano Real Estate LLC (hereinafter referred to as Arricano) was among the nominees in the Developer of the Year nomination and its CEO Anna Chubotina - in the Industry Professional of the Year nomination.  During her speech at the Live Connect meeting, which has been held within CEEQA for the third year in a row, Anna Chubotina emphasized the significant potential of cities such as Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia, where Arricano shopping malls maintain high occupancy despite the difficult operational situation.

"The CITY MALL in Zaporizhzhia maintains a 0% vacancy rate, despite a drop in revenues due to constant shelling and alarms, which can take up to half the working time. The persistence of such an indicator as occupancy and a positive trend in the restoration of attendance demonstrate the prospects for the reconstruction and development of these cities. In our opinion, they have significant potential if their reconstruction is supported at the national and international levels. Large shopping malls play an important role for local communities and the general economic situation of the regions, so despite all the challenges, Arricano continues to invest in the development of its shopping malls in frontline cities," said Anna Chubotina.

The CEO of Arricano noted that the number of residents of Kyiv remained at the pre-war level due to internal migration, and in cities such as Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih, the population probably decreased by 20-30%, based on the assessment of retail trade volumes.

"The situation depends on where your project is located. For example, in our facilities in Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih, the situation is very different from Kyiv, where we achieved results that more or less correspond to the pre-war level," Anna Chubotina added.

She showed the guests of the CEEQA 2025 ceremony what the Sun Gallery shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih, which was completely restored by Arricano, looks like, after being damaged by a missile attack on the city in January 2024, and emphasized the importance of attracting investment to support Ukrainian cities even during the war. 

Central & Eastern European Real Estate Quality Awards (CEEQA) is one of the largest real estate competitions in Europe. The annual industry award, established in 2003, identifies the best projects, brands and companies for the previous calendar year. A number of events take place during CEEQA, including a Live Connect meeting. This year, in addition to the CEO of Arricano, representatives of Ukrainian real estate business took part in it. In particular, Andrii Brynzylo (Argo Capital Property Ukraine), Hanna Koriahina (Nhood), Maksym Havriushyn (Budhouse Group), and Volodymyr Tymochko (Dragon Capital).

"Initiatives such as the Live Connect meeting during CEEQA are a great opportunity to promote the Ukrainian agenda in a united Europe and important support for the professional CRE community at this difficult time. I am sure that such measures are an effective tool for future attraction of international investment in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine," Ms. Chubotina summed up.

Arricano Real Estate PLC (Cyprus), through its Ukrainian subsidiaries, owns 4 shopping malls in Ukraine — Prospekt shopping mall and RayON shopping mall in Kyiv, CITY MALL shopping mall in Zaporizhzhia and Sun Gallery shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih.