St.Gallen city center convinces with its diversity

On September 27, the company ImmoCompass AG presented the "Retailmonitoring Innenstadt St.Gallen". This analyzed the commercial offer of the St.Gallen city center and compared it with the cities of Winterthur, Lugano, Lucerne, Biel, Thun and Fribourg. In terms of Switzerland as a whole, grocery stores in particular have expanded strongly over the past three years, whereas clothing stores have reduced their locations. In terms of the city of St.Gallen, the following key findings from the city comparison are worth mentioning:

• Employment in the hospitality industry increased by 2% in St.Gallen (city as a whole) between 2011 and 2020, while it decreased by an average of 6% in the comparison cities.
• Employment in the retail trade decreased by 13% in St.Gallen (city as a whole) over the same period. In the comparison cities, by contrast, the decline averaged 7%.
• The share of gastronomic offerings in St.Gallen's city center is the highest of all comparison cities at 28%. The average of the comparison cities is 21%.
• Stores from the "Fashion & Beauty" sector are underrepresented in St.Gallen's city center with a share of 18% in comparison. Here, the average value of the comparison cities is 25%. The high number of watch and jewelry stores in the tourist centers
  Lucerne and Lugano should be noted here.
• Compared to the other cities, St.Gallen's city center also still has potential in terms of branches of well-known chains from various sectors.
• Rents in the city center are in the middle range compared to the other cities.

Felix Thurnheer from the company ImmoCompass AG attests that St.Gallen's city center has a very good situation with regard to vacant commercial premises. "Currently, we count only seven vacancies and these are regularly distributed. There are no empty streets or squares. The city center looks lively and in good demand," says Felix Thurnherr.

Ralph Bleuer, president of Pro City St.Gallen, confirms the partly good mood in the city center. "We see various upcoming new openings, for example at Neugasse 46/48 or Multergasse 41 (former H&M). In addition, relocations of Globus and PKZ are pending, which with their their new locations will further enhance the attractiveness of the city center. Customer frequencies vary. On the one hand, it is noticeable that the proportion of home offices in certain offices remains high and that fewer employees are therefore in the city. On the other hand, various stores report that the frequency and sales are relatively good to very good," says Ralph Bleuer.

"The downtown restaurant business is only partially feeling the home office. Occupancy rates at lunchtime and in the evening are very satisfactory. The above-average density of gastronomy offerings in St.Gallen's city center speaks for a gastronomy stronghold in St.Gallen and, in the view of Gastro Stadt St.Gallen, is conducive to high quality as well as an ideal basis for an attractive city center," says René Rechsteiner, President of Gastro Stadt St.Gallen.

In addition, the many events this summer, such as "BigNik", the "New Orleans Festival", "aufgetischt", the St.Galler Fest, the St.Galler Festspiele or also the city run brought a lot of life into the city center. This is also particularly valuable for tourism. Tourism brings additional frequencies into the city. For example, the number of overnight stays in the city of St.Gallen by the end of July 2022 was already above the level of 2019 (before Covid-19).