IL CENTRO Arese is the largest shopping centre in Italy by gross leasable area, opened in 2016 on the former Alfa Romeo factory site at Arese in the northwest Milan metro. Finiper Group developed the 92,000-sqm super-regional centre as the flagship of its Italian retail portfolio, anchored by an Iper La grande i hypermarket that ranks among the largest single-roof food retail formats in Europe.
The architectural footprint extends across roughly 280,000 square metres including parking decks and outdoor public space, with the retail core arranged around a central piazza that doubles as an event space. Around 200 stores occupy the two retail levels, with international fashion concentrated upstairs and family-oriented categories anchoring the ground floor near the hypermarket entrance. Apple, H&M, Zara, Primark, and a multiplex cinema feature in the tenant mix.
The catchment draws from northwest Milan metro plus Varese and Como provinces along the A8 motorway corridor, with proximity to the Pero-Fiera Milano exhibition complex creating a secondary traffic layer during major trade fair periods. Public transport access is limited compared to central Milan retail, and the asset operates principally as a parking-led destination with capacity for approximately 8,000 vehicles.
IL CENTRO’s position within Finiper’s portfolio is distinct from the operator’s smaller hypermarket-led centres. The Arese asset is the only Italian Finiper property at a super-regional scale and the only property positioned to compete directly with URW’s Carugate and Rozzano centres for north-Milan-metro fashion volume.
