The competition received wide-ranging submissions from Latin America and the Caribbean’s leading shopping center owners, developers, management companies, architects, designers and retailers. ICSC announced the winners during an awards ceremony at ICSC RECon Latin America & Caribbean in Lima, Peru. They Gold Award winners are as follows, by category:

Design & Development

Mercado Andares in Zapopan, Mexico

Mercado Andares  transformed a vacant anchor store into a regional gastronomy precinct, offering visitors a choice of 25 moderately priced dining options.  The themed zone features a warm color palette complemented with industrial design elements of exposed pipes and ceilings, wrought-iron catwalks, and wood and metal décor accents.

Design & Development – New Development

Shopping Estação Cuiabá in Cuiaba, Brazil
 

The region’s newest centre offers 254 retail stores, a seven-theatre cinema complex with VIP rooms, a dedicated pet park, children’s playgrounds, and an innovative 2,000 square meter Taste Labe featuring 15 international and regional food retailers interspersed with indoor and outdoor dining areas and lounges.

Viva Envigado in Envigado, Colombia

Colombia’s largest mixed use development offers an impressive mix of international and regional retailers, an outdoor amusement park, cinema complex, multi-sport facilities, co-worker zones, and an expansive food court offering more than 50 food and beverage choices, and complemented by an adjacent open-air restaurant boulevard.

Viva Tunja in Tunja, Colombia

The urban center features an earth-toned design palette, customer relaxation zones, an impressive retailer mix including more than 40 first to region brands, a variety of food and beverage options, a state of the art cinema complex, cultural stage, co-worker lounge, and an events plaza that can accommodate up to 600 people.

Marketing – Advertising 

The Wrong Gift at Real Plaza in Lima, Peru

Marketing – Cause-Related 

Mueller Ecodesing Social at Shopping Mueller in Curitiba, Brazil

The shopping center sent a collective of construction, manufacturing, design, and architectural professionals, as well as employees, to sustainably renovate a three-building development housing vulnerable children and teens. The project was funded entirely by donations of cash, materials, supplies, furniture, and a volunteer workforce, with an equivalent value of $486,000.

Pijamada en Nuevocentro Shopping at Nuevocentro Shopping in Montevideo, Uruguay

Nuevocentro Shopping invited local students between the ages of 9 and 12 to create anti-bullying themed campaigns, and selected students to participate in an in-center pajama party, with games, treats, anti-bullying workshops, and team building exercises. The campaigns, created by 132 students, were seen by more than 300,000 visitors.

Marketing – Grand Opening, Expansion & Renovation  

Centro Gran Carchá Grand Opening and MKT Campaign at Centro Gran Carchá in San Pedro Carchá, Guatemala

Centro Gran Carchá performed extensive analysis, research and consultations with the Mayan Q’eqchi people, and incorporated their rich cultural heritage into every facet of their multi-platform grand opening campaign.  The thoughtful approach generated 41,279 social media followers, 48.7 million media impressions, and nearly 396,000 visitors during the center’s opening month.

Marketing – Public Relations  

Mercado Justo at Alto Las Condes in Santiago, Chile

Alto Las Condes  collaborated with local government and the Chilean Association for Fair Trade to promote the Mercado Justo program, a year-long marketplace featuring goods and items created by 20 certified fair trade entrepreneurs — 80 percent of whom are women.  Their strategic efforts attracted extensive media coverage, and generated year over year sales growth of 81 percent.

REDISEÑA 2019 at Montevideo Shopping in Montevideo, Uruguay

Fashion students were invited to participate in collaborative up-cycling workshops and given the opportunity to transform donated clothing items into a collection for a runway event.  The items were sold to the public with all proceeds benefitting the students, with the top three teams also being awarded additional courses and workshops at the Universidad Diego Portales.

Marketing – Sales Promotion & Events  

Giant bath "Inflatable Ducks" at Santafé Medellín Shopping Center in Medellín, Colombia

The center invited guests  to immerse themselves in one of two giant inflatable bathtub and duck installations, to jump their troubles away, or to play a unique duckling themed hunting game. The fun and immersive installations were enjoyed in-center by more than 31,350 visitors, and generated a year-over-year increase of 2.2 percent in visitor traffic.

Women Greatness at Commercial Citadel Unicentro Cali in Cali, Colombia

Unicentro Cali invited visitors to exchange purchase receipts for an opportunity to attend an in-centre conference with panel discussions led by well-known media personalities discussing inclusion, gender equality and domestic abuse resilience.  The four-centre initiative attracted 2,500 attendees, and generated a 52.9 percent sales increase.

Digital/emerging technology

Viva Envigado  Smart WiFi, Viva Envigado, Envigado, Colombia

Viva Envigado’s high-speed Wifi service featuring a simple login and enhanced browser service, incorporates SMS marketing technology and vehicle location service.  The technologically advanced system attracted 100,000 new database members, and registered 300,000 connections, 14,000 vehicle location requests, and 350,000 SMS interactions, during the first eight months.

Retail 

Louder in Zapopan, Mexico

The innovative 124-meter square meter Louder space features three permanent exhibition areas, two luxurious changing rooms with an adjacent waiting lounge, and an adjustable merchandise display system incorporating metallic frames suspended from overhead rails, that can expand or reduce display areas according to season or need.