Overview of the shopping center "Babylon" in Moscow

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

From this article you will learn about the "Golden Babylon" at 211 Prospekt Mira: the history of the complex, current state, popularity. The review will consider the shops and entertainment presented in it. You will find out if the complex is worth your attention, find reviews about the trading platform and directions to it.

From the history of the complex

Opened in November 2009, the Golden Babylon shopping center with an area of 241,000 m2 was the largest in Moscow and Europe at that time. The new shopping and entertainment complex quickly pushed aside competitors such as Mega and gained a lot of visitors.

It has about 450 shops in its gallery, a 14-screen Luxor cinema with an area of 6,200 m2, as well as the Fun City game center, which houses a bowling alley popular with local youth, children's slot machines, air hockey and a cafe with the possibility of holding children's parties.

Shortly after the opening, large tenants appeared in the Vavilon shopping center in Moscow: leading fashion brands, popular chain restaurants, and the O'Key hypermarket. The complex quickly gained popularityand became known to residents of other districts of the capital.

At the peak of popularity

The heyday of the Vavilon shopping center in Moscow fell on 2010-2013, at that time the site, due to its size and the presence of leading brands and entertainment, attracted almost endless streams of visitors. The first level of the parking lot, designed for 7,500 cars, was almost always full. Visitors to the center came from the nearest suburbs of Moscow and other areas of the city.

The complex has become a favorite meeting place for young people and representatives of the middle class because of the many cozy restaurants for every taste: the chains "Il Patio", "Shokoladnitsa", "Coffee House". More budget-friendly Elki-Palki, McDonald's and KFC happily opened their doors to shoppers tired after shopping.

In the recently opened "Golden Babylon" on Prospekt Mira, even a small skating rink operated for some time. We can safely say that the center was in no way inferior to the competitors of those years, even surpassed them. He even published his own magazine, which stood out from the other malls' flyers by having really useful articles about fashion, lifestyle and home improvement.

The Vavilon shopping center in Moscow often hosted concerts by popular artists such as Sergey Lazarev and successful performances of cover bands with sensational foreign compositions. The shopping center has become a truly family-friendly one thanks to the playroom, where children were not only supervised by animators, but also had the opportunity to participate in various games, competitions and master classes.

Current situation

Time passed, and a couple of years after its opening, the Vavilon shopping center in Moscow lost the title of the largest site in Russia and Europe to younger competitors. In recent years, due to the crisis, many well-known tenants, such as River Island, Topshop and Mango, have left its territory. In the shopping center, first one, and then the second point of "Coffee House" was closed, one of the three coffee houses "Shokoladnitsa" was closed. Of course, some of these changes are due to the widespread reduction in the number of cafes of well-known chains in the city, and some are due to the fallen popularity of the former giant.

There are shops in the Vavilon shopping center in Moscow, it is not empty, other, more niche brands have replaced the previous ones. A large hypermarket of goods for hobbies and creativity "Leonardo" has opened, in general there are enough visitors, but still the megamall is no longer popular.

In December 2017, FortGroup bought the entire Golden Babylon chain of five shopping centers and immediately announced the upcoming large-scale reconstruction. The shopping center will be renamed Europolis Rostokino and will change the concept and internal layout. The company is hatching grandiose plans to revive the former demand for the shopping center and equip it in connection with fashion trends.

Conclusion

The Golden Babylon shopping center is now successful and loved by both residents of Rostokino and other districts and even nearby cities. But still, he lost some of his former popularity. A significant part of the area was empty, and new nichetenants cannot meet all the needs of buyers. The new owner of the network has his own vision of how to breathe new life into the complex. It is not known whether the center needs such a big restructuring, but consumers will ultimately vote in rubles. Residents of the area would not want to lose such a familiar megamall, in which a lot of goods and entertainment are collected under one roof.