More than 3.7 million visitors since its opening
Almost 100 days into the opening of Loom in Bielefeld, the new shopping attraction is met with positive response from visitors, retailers, the city, and ECE. Looking at important statistics such as footfall, the opening of Loom was one of the most successful center openings by ECE in the past years. On the opening day alone, almost 100,000 visitors came to the new shopping center in East Westphalia. A total of approximately 3.7 million people visited the center until the end of January. An average of about 47,900 visitors per day came to the center until the end of 2017. By now, it has levelled to 30,000 visitors per day. More than 80,000 vehicles entered the modernized parking garage, which boasts 550 parking spaces, in 2017. Approximately 1.45 million people live in the catchment area of Loom. Besides the people of Bielefeld, the center is visited by people from Gütersloh, Herford, Paderborn, Osnabrück, and the Lippe district.
“Loom inspires several tens of thousands of visitors every day. We are very happy about this and our achievements so far. We will continue to thrill our customers with services, quality, and events,” said, Michael Latz, Center Manager of Loom, looking back at the past months.
ECE had opened the modern shopping center after a construction period of two years on October 26, 2017 on time and within budget. ECE Real Estate Partners invested 135 million euros into the shopping center, which has a sales area of 26,000m². On its opening day, the center with its 110 shops, service providers, and restaurants, was fully leased. The last two tenants, Joker Smoker (e-cigarette dealer) and the Leineweber-Café, will open their stores at the beginning of February and on March 1 respectively.
The local, national, and international retailers are very pleased with the start of their businesses at Loom: Christoph Uphaus, Regional Manager at Primark, said: “We’ve also had one of the best openings.” Tobias Dunkel, Rewe supermarket manager at Loom, confirms a great start as well: “Apparently, a supermarket is really needed here in the city center.” The local food operators are very happy about the new and the old regular customers. Thomas Rolf, Manager of Bäckerei Rolf (bakery) said: “We already have a number of return customers.” Siegfried Damisch of Fleischerei Damisch (butcher) added: “Many older people come to us and our regular customers, who already came to our premises at the old City Passage, have also returned.”
But not only the tenants at Loom are happy. The neighbors, the adjacent businesses, retailers, and restaurants and the Handelsverband Ostwestfalen-Lippe e.V. (Trade Association of East Westphalia) are also very positive about the new downtown shopping center. They regard Loom as an asset to Bielefeld. “Since Loom was opened, the footfall in the city center of Bielefeld has increased significantly. This is especially true for Bahnhofstrasse, but also for the historic part of the city,” said Thomas Kunz, Chief Executive Officer of Handelsverband Ostwestfalen-Lippe e.V.