A lifelong resident of Brussels, Marc finds that rue Neuve is no longer what it used to be. Worried, he pressed the orange Alert us button, wondering: what future for city centers after the Covid crisis?
Marc has always lived in Brussels, but for some time he no longer recognizes his city. He often walks downtown, as he works nearby. However, he no longer feels as much pleasure in strolling on Rue Neuve, the main commercial artery. “Here is a first store which is empty, just behind there is a second which needs to be put back and further down the street there are about ten of them.“laments Mark.
For 10 years, Marc has been working in a bank, near rue Neuve. Still, it’s the first time he’s seen this street with “so many businesses to hand over“.
This Brussels resident says he is “surprised”: “I even wonder about the future of the city center, is it something temporary?“. Marc is all the more worried that he recognizes this phenomenon in other cities such as Antwerp, where “there are many shops that are for rent in some shopping streets“he testifies.
A temporary phenomenon
Quentin Huet, the manager of Shopera, the association of shopkeepers in the city center of Brussels, admits that the pandemic has been a “supply and demand shock“. Indeed, the sanitary measures have had a detrimental effect on businesses: “There are a lot of people who no longer came to rue Neuve, since they were almost forbidden to come and shop, with social distancing. Many stores have dropped in their turnover“.
Marc can however be reassured, this should not last: “We are in a post-shock period, we are trying to see how it will work again, and then it will get back to normal, and it will return to normal in the next few weeks or the next few months“, reassures Quentin Huet. Indeed, customers are now back, turnover is increasing again and retail rents are stabilizing.
A new generation of traders
This rebirth of shops can already be observed in other cities, such as in Mons for example, the president of the Association Du Management De Centre-Ville (AMCV), notes the arrival of new shopkeepers: “A new generation of independents who do niche business, and who go to city centers. They do not go at all to the large commercial centers on the outskirts“.
According to him, the Covid was not so devastating, but on the contrary accelerated their development: “We have seen people who came from digital create physical commerce, or people who reviewed their lives“. The pandemic has allowed some people to invest in their passions, and to create businesses. These businesses are, according to the AMCV, largely “sharp, recycling, circular economy, so really we are on societal trends“ justifies Jean-Luc Calonger.