Don't call it Polygon anymore. On November 20, 2024, the Cagnes-sur-Mer shopping center, taken over by the Frey group at the end of 2023, was renamed Shopping promenade Riviera, announcing a sharp shift towards leisure. Within a year, Printemps' XXL premises will host an indoor games complex (our edition of November 20, 2024)preceded by the arrival of a Fort Boyard adventures in place of Botanic. Behind the announced objective of establishing itself in “leader in entertainment in the Alpes-Maritimes”can we see this as the second round of an economic battle with the historic Cap 3000, anchored in Saint-Laurent since 1969?
Capturing young people
“Until now, Polygone Riviera was in the same markets as Cap 3.000. This is a differentiation strategy to no longer attract the same clientele, analyzes Lionel Nesta, professor of economics at the University of Côte d'Azur, member of the Law, Economics and Management Research Group (Gredeg). With the leisure offer, the center undoubtedly hopes to attract a younger audience, by lowering its range to increase the volume of visitors.”
Director of a master's degree specialized in digital marketing at the Skema business school in Sophia Antipolis, Frédéric Bossard agrees: “Moving towards entertainment is not a bad idea, it complements cinema. But the desire to stand out is clear, at a time when Cap 3.000 has clearly won the shopping battle”, the teacher decides. At the head of a communications agency, he also considers the name change risky. “Better to do it when the new products are there than at the dawn of a construction period. And why focus on the word shopping and not on the idea of leisure?” he asks himself.
From luxury to leisure
Upon its arrival in October 2015 along the banks of the Malvan, the Cagnois open-air center first sought to plow a furrow at the crossroads of luxury and accessibility. “The real problem was this structuring, with one side dedicated to the rich, supported by Printemps, and the other to those who are not rich with Primarkschematizes Frédéric Bossard. Cap 3.000 has also tried to do the same with its aisle dedicated to luxury brands; without much success, judging by the attendance. On the Côte d'Azur, the high-end clientele is more likely to live in Monaco or Cannes.” continues Frédéric Bossard.
Regional director of commercial real estate transactions for BNP Paribas Real estate, Philippe Bono has however observed in recent years “greater turnover of stores” at Polygon than at Cap 3,000. “When large brands contact us to set up shop on the coast, Cap 3,000 comes out first. It has historical notoriety”, he notes.
However, the leisure menu on which Shopping promenade Riviera relies has nothing of the above-ground fad. “Since post-Covid, this has been a general trend, notes Philippe Bono. We have more and more requests for large commercial premises for laser games, electric karting, video game rooms in the vein of Head in the Clouds at Cap 3,000.”
“Cannibalism”
What if the real question was the multiplication of shopping centers in a pocket square? “Carrefour Lingostière and Cap 3.000 have been expanded, there is a project underway in Valbonne [Village de Sophia (ex-Open sky), dans la Valmasque]… With customer potential remaining the same, the share of the pie is necessarily divided”analyzes Philippe Bono. “ Without even talking about ecological issues, isn't there a form of cannibalism between these commercial zones?”concludes economist Lionel Nesta. Time will tell.
