TDS Corporation, a Saratov company tracing its history to a department store founded in 1962, opened Tau Gallery on September 30, 2015 in the city’s Leninsky district, at the intersection of Prospekt 50 Let Oktyabrya and Dubovikov Street, becoming the largest shopping center in Saratov Oblast. British architecture firm Dyer designed the project, with Alfa-Bank as financial partner and Cushman & Wakefield handling leasing.
Auchan City anchors the grocery floor at roughly 7,500 sqm, alongside M.Video for electronics, Detsky Mir for children’s goods and a multi-screen Cinema Park, which added the city’s first laser 4K supercinema screen in December 2015. Sportmaster, Colin’s and Koton anchor the fashion floor; H&M was part of the opening-era tenant mix but exited the Russian market, with its Saratov store specifically closing on October 25, 2022.
By its first anniversary, the center had reached close to 100 percent occupancy across roughly 125 stores, drawing 25,000 weekday and 35,000 weekend visitors on average and more than 7 million visitors in its first year. TDS Corporation is also the exclusive Saratov representative for several international brands, including Benetton and New Balance, and runs the regional Yves Rocher retail network across Saratov, Engels, Volgograd and Volzhsky.
That first-mover scale, combined with TDS’s existing regional retail relationships, has kept Tau Gallery positioned as Saratov’s dominant shopping and entertainment destination rather than one of several comparable options, a position reinforced by ongoing programming like book fairs, author events and seasonal festivals aimed at repeat visits rather than pure retail transactions.
