ECE: Loom shopping center opens on October 26, 2017 in Bielefeld, Germany

Further anchors are Intersport Voswinkel, Toys’R’Us, who will return to Bielefeld after ten years, Schuhpark, and Thalia, who will open its second shop in Bielefeld. The tailored retail mix is complemented by specialist shops such as Rossmann, Becker & Flöge (optician), eyes and more (optician), the jewelry stores Kenju and Christ, Rituals, Triumph, and more. The fresh and deli zone on ground floor is another customer attraction. It features a Rewe supermarket and a market hall. Furthermore, customers are offered regional and national delicacies, e.g. by Metzgerei Damisch (butcher), Bäckerei Austerschmidt (bakery), Früchte Palast (fruit), Gaumenfreude, Wajos, Reformhaus Bacher, Ciao Bella, CIGO (tobacco), and Black.de. Many retailers, who had already leased a space in the old City-Passage, have returned to new Loom. These include Deichmann, Bijou Brigitte, and Nordsee, but also local and regional retailers and franchisers such as Metzgerei Damisch (butcher), Juwelier Dural (jeweler), Bäckerei Rolf (bakery), Lee & Lee, Alte Schule, Socks for you, Leos Jeans, Haarshop 21, CL Nails, and the concert and theater ticket store Konticket.

Wide variety of culinary offers

The food service offers at Loom underline its status as a vivid, attractive meeting point. Its food court, named “Loom Kitchen”, on the second floor offers various exciting culinary offers, 340 seats, and nine different concepts. The food retailers at “Loom Kitchen” include KFC, Gustosa (Mediterranean food), Chutney (Indian cuisine), Pasta Passion, Lee & Lee (Asian), Burger BRO, Pomm Store, Freshbar (smoothie and juice bar), and Hakari (Asian). Besides the food court, four restaurants on ground floor will feature outside seating in the pedestrian zone and thus contribute to the vibrant atmosphere downtown: Nordsee, Pizzeria Piccolo (Stresemannstrasse), the restaurant Zen Zen (Asian / Sushi), and Mövenpick Marché (Bahnhofstrasse). More than nine percent of the center’s shop spaces are leased to food services. This also corresponds to the actual customer’s expectations: According to a study by TNS Infratest, about 60 percent of the visitors use the food services at shopping centers.

Services tailored to the customers and high level of comfort

The wide variety of service offerings also add to the unique shopping experience at Loom. Customers can use a digital 3D wayfinding system or the indoor navigation feature of Google Maps on their smartphone to find their way around. Moreover, Loom will have the most modern parking garage in Bielefeld with a number of convenient services such as the “Easy to Park” card, which allows for ticketless parking and cashless payments, the “Car Finder” or the parking guidance system that helps finding available parking spaces easily. The services of the center also include Wi-Fi on all floors, a Selfie Photo Box, cell phone charging stations, high quality lounge areas, and a staffed customer information desk.

Family-friendliness is valued high at the center. Therefore, families visiting Loom will benefit from extra-wide parking-spaces for family cars, automatic doors, and extra-wide elevators for kid strollers. The family-friendly services include specially-fitted family restrooms, mother-child toilets with baby-care facilities, nursing rooms, a service corner in the food court with a microwave and bottle warmer, and a large kids’ playground in the food court. Activities and events for the whole family complement the offerings in the center.

Premium design and modern architecture

The architectural design of the new shopping center blends in perfectly with its existing urban environment. The combination of light sandstone, solid steel beams, and large glass fronts give a modern feel to the building and picks up on the architectural style of many other buildings in Bielefeld. In the interior of the center, especially in the food court, many design elements are inspired by the history of the place which was the site of Bielefeld’s first sewing machine factory and the long tradition of the city as the center of the textiles industry. The spectacular focus of the center is the ellipses-shaped plaza which has a height of 32 meters from its floor to the glass dome. The interior is clad in fresh, dynamic colors which will add a vivid, big-city feel to the center. The 24-meter express escalator, which takes visitors directly from ground floor below the glass dome to the second floor, is another magnificent highlight.

Meeting sustainability standards

Loom also complies with sustainability standards through the use of modern and energy-saving technologies. For example, energy-saving LED lighting, which is controlled by a smart daylight control in the mall, is used throughout the center. An innovative load and energy management helps saving energy through constant monitoring of the energy use. The system avoids load peaks and contributes to a cost-efficient operation of the center. Usage-dependent pumps and ventilators, highly efficient heat recovery systems of the inside air systems, water-saving fittings, and special cooling systems in the rental areas, which allow for cooling at low outside temperatures without the use of additional chillers, also contribute to saving resources and protecting the climate.

A modern parking guidance system facilitates energy-saving and environmentally friendly car traffic at the center. It quickly leads the visitors to the next available parking space and thus avoids unnecessary use of gas and reduces exhaust fumes. Moreover, there are three parking spaces with charging points for electric vehicles.

SOURCE: ECE Projektmanagement G.m.b.H. & Co. KG