Nordstan

For the district of Gothenburg, see Nordstaden.
Nordstan
Nordstan logo
The main entrance to Nordstan from Brunnsparken
Map
LocationGothenburg, Sweden
Coordinates57°42′30″N 11°58′9″E / 57.70833°N 11.96917°E / 57.70833; 11.96917
OwnerAMF Pension

Nordstans Samfällighetsförening
Vasakronan
Hufvudstaden
Eklandia
F O Peterson

Söner Byggnads
No. of stores and services179
Total retail floor area70,000 m2 (750,000 sq ft)
No. of floors4
Parking2,700
Public transit accessGothenburg Central Station
Nils Ericson Terminal
Websitenordstan.se

Nordstan is a shopping center in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is the largest shopping centre in Sweden in terms of revenue, and with approximately 180 shops and 150 offices. The shopping centre's total area is about 320,000 m2 (3,400,000 sq ft) divided into nine interconnected buildings, where retail and restaurant floor space makes up around 70,000 m2 (750,000 sq ft). The covered streets and squares comprise 8,000 m2 (86,000 sq ft). The companies housed in Nordstan employ approximately six thousand people and the total annual turnover was SEK 4.1 billion in 2013.[1] The main passageways in the centre are public spaces and therefore are open for use after shops have closed.[2] The character of the centre changes after closing time of the shops. The presence of adults is drastically reduced and the premises become a hangout for youth.[2]

History

The department store Femman.

During the emigration to America from the 1860s to the 1920s,[3] the area of Nordstan was a lively part of city. Emigrants passed here between the Gothenburg Central Station and the ships waiting at the Port of Gothenburg to the west.

The area where Nordstan is currently located is called Östra Nordstan (Eastern North city), as it was located north of the Great Canal and east of the Östra Hamngatan street, in opposite to Västra Nordstan (Western North city) located west of that street.

However, in the 1960s the area of Östra Nordstaden was neglected and had become a slum.[4]: 7  With the help of building companies and banks all of the old city blocks were acquired, with a total of 90 buildings. The construction of the Nordstan shopping centre began in 1967, over a part of the city previously neglected. Östra Nordstan was shortened to Nordstan when the shopping centre was opened. Most of the current Nordstan was finished by 1972. At its time, the construction of the shopping centre was Sweden's largest ever city renovation project. By 2006, Nordstan had gone through a major renovation to make it more attractive.[citation needed]

City blocks and houses were linked together with a common roof. The cost for the renovation rose up to about 2.8 billion Swedish krona (in 2014 money) and was "the largest city renovation in Sweden" at the time. The entire project was organised by private construction companies and many Gothenburgian banks (most prominently by Skandinaviska banken, but also by Svenska Handelsbanken, Sveriges Kreditbank and Göteborgs Bank)[4]: 21  and with help from the municipality.

The city's expert in building, Torsten Henrikson, said about the role of the municipality:

From the beginning, the consortium sought contact with the authorities to see whether the city was interested in participating and found out that it was not, because we had such large need for renovation. According to the city, it should take a more mercantile role. But we said that we would leave all participation from the municipality, create a zoning plan for the area, and the decision about the plan was also a political decision.[4]: 11f 

Ten construction companies of various sizes expressed interest in the project: Gösta Andersson Byggnadsfirma; Byggnads AB Eriksson & Rann; Ernst Järnfelt Byggnads AB; Yngve Kullenberg Byggnads AB; Byggnads AB J. Alfr. Olsson; F O Peterson & Söner Byggnads AB; AB Skånska Cementgjuteriet; Gunnar Zetterberg Byggnads AB; Bygg-Oleba Olle Engkvist AB and Svenska Industribyggen AB. On 21 June 1960 these companies founded the commandit company Östra Nordstaden AB & Co with equal shares. The CEO was the chief of the buildings department in Gothenburg, Frans Persson. The company's own capital was 300 thousand krona. To avoid speculation in building prices, 33 buildings had been invested in April 1961 and a further eight in November in the same year.[4]: 15, 20f 

The name "Nordstan" comes from the neighbourhood of Nordstaden, whose eastern part the area is located in, at the northern part of the original city area. The shopping centre was originally called Östra Nordstan,[5] but by 1984 the name was shortened to Nordstan.[4]: 55  Many of the original street names have been preserved. Nordstanstorget was invented, Norra Larmgatan and Lilla Klädpressaregatan were taken away when the shopping centre was built. Lilla Klädpressaregatan was taken into use again in 1986[6] when the bottom floor of the parking hall was rebuilt to business use. It is also called Nya Gatan.

On 11 December 1979 rollerskating was forbidden in Nordstadstorget. It had become a larger problem than what had been expected.[7]

From 2008 to 2009 large parts of the shopping centre were renovated. Åhléns opened a fourth floor, and a further 4000 square metres of business space were given available for Elgiganten and Stadium. This cost 60 million krona.[8]

Nordstan was for some time a hangout for street children with foreign backgrounds, from the suburbs of Gothenburg but also migrants from Morocco, Afghanistan and Syria, after the shops close at night. These gangs threatened shop keepers, traded drugs and fought with other gangs in the centre.[9] Many of the unaccompanied minors hanging in the shopping centre have had several asylum applications rejected.[10]

Location and transportation

Nordstan is located in Gothenburg's city centre, connected to the Gothenburg Central Station and the Nils Ericson Terminal by an underground pedestrian tunnel, and to the Lilla Bommen marina and the Gothenburg Opera house by sheltered walkways. The shopping centre also offers parking space to 2,700 cars. Just outside Nordstan are three different tram stops on three sides of the shopping center, making it easy to reach Nordstan by public transportation. A majority of the visitors use public transportation. If almost all of the visitors had used cars (as it is for many shopping centres outside city centres), around 8,000 parking places would be needed and this would need more parking space area than shop area.

Panorama of Nordstan's interior

Description

Interior view of Nordstan.

Nordstad is visited by 35 million people annually and has an annual revenue of 4 billion krona (2012).[11] There are about 200 shops and restaurants as well as about 150 offices in the same complex. There are four floors for businesses in the shopping centre.

The Nordstadstorget square is located in the middle of Nordstan, which is a large indoor space used for exhibitions and events. The department store Åhléns (opened on 27 March 1974[12]) and the department store Femman, owned by Hufvudstaden, are located there. Femman consists of three floors of shops and five floors of offices.[13] The shopping centre was opened in nine stages between 1972 and 1985.

Under Christmas season 2004 the rush at the Nordstan parking hall was so great that instead of the normal capacity of 2700 cars, it was visited by 8000 cars per day.[14] Many drivers had to queue for 1.5 hours to get out of the parking hall. The shopping centre had to call its security guards from Securitas to organise the traffic. On the same day in December 2004, the shopping centre was visited by 140 thousand customers.[14]

There are many store chains and their "flagship stores" in Nordstan. MacForum in Nordstan opened in March 2008 with an area of 1600 square metres. It is the second largest Apple store in Europe, after the store in London, United Kingdom. However, the store in Nordstan is just a vendor, not an Apple Store owned by Apple Inc. itself. By terms of sales area, the store is the largest external Apple vendor in the world.[15] Other "flagship stores" include Lindex, which was opened as the company's first Brand Store in Nordstan in 2001, H&M, and the Spanish clothes store Desigual which opened its first store in Nordstan in 2010 with a sales area of 700 square metres.[16]

Ownership

The complex is owned by a consortium of building companies. These include Vasakronan,[17] Hufvudstaden, F O Peterson Söner Byggnads AB, Gösta Andersson Byggnadsfirma AB and Castellum AB, as well as the Nordstan building company.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Välkommen till Nordstan affärscentrum i Göteborg" (PDF) (in Swedish). Nordstan. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 January 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  2. ^ a b KARTLÄGGNING AV UNGDOMAR SOM FÄLTGRUPPEN CITY MÖTER I SITT UPPSÖKANDE ARBETE I NORDSTAN (PDF). Gothenburg: Gothenburg Municipality / Social Resursförvaltning. 2018. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 April 2018.
  3. ^ Göteborgs-Emigranten 1, editors: Per Clemensson, Lennart Limberg, Lars Ljungmark, Department of History of the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg Historical museum, State archive of Gothenburg 1988 ISBN 91-7970-124-8, p. 23
  4. ^ a b c d e Fritz, Martin (1997). Nordstan: från gårdagens vision till dagens affärscentrum. Göteborg: Tre böcker. Libris 7592981. ISBN 91-7029-321-X.
  5. ^ Göteborgs-Posten, 22 September 1972. Whole page announcement "Var med torsdag 28/9. Då öppnar Varuhuset Femman. Bekvämt i Östra Nordstan." 2. Reklamfolder för Varuhuset Femman: "Varuhuset Femman är hjärtbyggnaden i Östra Nordstan, som begränsas av: Östra Hamngatan Norra Hamngatan - Nils Ericsonsgatan - Kanaltorgsgatan. Öppnas oktober 1972." 3. Kronologiska anteckningar om viktigare händelser i Göteborg 1619-1982, Agne Rundqvist, Ralf Scander, Anders Bothén, Elof Lindälv, utgiven av Göteborgs hembygdsförbund 1982, p. 150: "1972 invigdes Östra Nordstan, Sveriges största köpcentrum under ett tak, med 55.000 kvm markplan och 225.000 kvm kontorsplan."
  6. ^ Göteborgs Gatunamn: 1621 t o m 2000, [4th edition.], red. Greta Baum, Tre Böcker Förlag, Gothenburg 2001, ISBN 91-7029-460-7, p. 190f.
  7. ^ Det hände mycket i Göteborg på sjuttiotalet: [En kronologisk krönika i urval av Bengt Ason Holm] Tre böcker förlag, Gothenburg 2015, ISBN 978-91-7029-757-1, p. 98.
  8. ^ Nordstan växer med 4000 m² butiksyta för Elgiganten och Stadium. Nordstan/AP Fastigheter 27 March 2008. Accessed on 5 October 2010.
  9. ^ "Brottsplats Nordstan – så ser vardagen ut". Expressen. 14 January 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  10. ^ "Ny kartläggning av ungdomar i Nordstan". Göteborgs-Posten (in Swedish). Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  11. ^ Nordstan, mynewsdesk
  12. ^ Det hände mycket i Göteborg på sjuttiotalet: [En kronologisk krönika i urval av Bengt Ason Holm] Tre böcker förlag, Gothenburg 2015, ISBN 978-91-7029-757-1, p. 46.
  13. ^ Ekberg, Eddie (18 June 2010): Hufvudstaden bygger ut Femmanhuset, Fastighetssverige. Accessed on 5 October 2010.
  14. ^ a b Kö i 1,5 timme ut ur p-hus, Dagens Nyheter 23 December 2004.
  15. ^ Englund, Björn (26 March 2008): Macforum öppnar flaggskepp, Dagens Handel. Accessed on 5 October 2010.
  16. ^ Andersson, Håkan (19 August 2010): Desigual öppnar i Göteborg, Göteborgsposten. Accessed on 5 October 2010.
  17. ^ Handel - Göteborg, Vasakronan. Accessed on 5 October 2010.
  18. ^ 20 Största Köpcentrum, Fastighetsvärlden 28 September 2007. Accessed on 5 October 2010.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nordstan.