Six state-of-the-art cinemas, outdoor gardens with 120 different species of plants, children's play areas with pirate ships, toy library and climbing wall, eleven new restaurants and three kiosks... The Gran Plaza 2 shopping center is renewed this season to transform the concept of shopping.

Customers of the XXI century no longer seek only shopping, but want to live experiences in an increasingly sustainable environment and surrounded by nature.

For this reason, the company LSGI -which manages the shopping center- has decided to expand the facilities and convert 15,000 meters of parking into an orchard with vertical gardens and waterfalls full of lights and sound, where concerts are given on weekends.

Located in the town of Majadahonda, the Gran Plaza 2 not only attracts the public from the municipalities of the northwest of the Community, but also receives numerous customers from the mountains of Madrid, from the towns of the west such as Alcorcón and Móstoles, as well as from the bordering provinces such as Ávila and Segovia.

This shopping center – which opened in 2012 – has always had a wide range of fashion and technology stores, with brands such as Primark, Apple or Fnac, in addition to the Alcampo hypermarket. But its leisure and restaurant proposal fell short for the more than nine million visitors it receives a year in its facilities.

To compensate for this shortfall, a new area has been created with nine indoor restaurants and three kiosks, in addition to the two outdoor restaurants, which will open soon and have large terraces within the gardens.

Undoubtedly, the bet seeks to attract young families who can go shopping quietly and leave their little ones in the toy library or have a beer while watching their children play on the pirate ship, an area that recreates the vegetation of a tropical island.

The pirate ship for children to play.S. G. V.

"We want Gran Plaza 2 to be recognized as a flagship shopping center, which adapts to changes and trends of the public. We seek to be a pioneering place that redefines the concept of retail, a space of leisure and disconnection to live experiences with the five senses, "said Joaquín Fuentes, director of the shopping center.

If the cinemas do nothing but close, the Gran Plaza 2 bets on opening six new rooms in the month of October, a repeated demand of the clients of the locality, with a high purchasing power.

For this, a cutting-edge technology will be used, since the films are not exhibited from a projector to the screen, but the screen itself has light thanks to the cutting-edge technology of LG Leds. "It will be the first multiplex cinema in the world that does not use booths," says Fuentes.

The screens offer a brightness in their projection almost 10 times higher than a traditional projection system, while the sound allows the viewer to have a complete immersive experience.

10% more visits

The rest of the shopping center has also been remodeled with large rest areas surrounded by trees and plants and the huge lamps have been replaced by Led bulbs to encourage energy saving.

The works, which began in January 2021 and ended in June of this year, have involved an investment of 28 million euros.

At the moment, its results have already been noticed and, since the gardens were opened in June, visits to Gran Plaza 2 grew by 10% in July with more than 750,000 visitors.

One of the interior areas of restoration.S. GONZÁLEZ VALERO

Tomorrow will be the official inauguration of the facilities with the assistance of the mayor of Majadahonda, Lola Moreno: "This is a very important initiative, since more than 2,000 people work in this shopping center. This expansion represents a remarkable economic investment and puts us at the forefront in technology, with movie theaters that will be pioneers in Spain, "said the councilor.

The director of Gran Plaza 2 is also working to improve the access roads to the shopping center, since they are currently scarce, which causes delays at peak times.

The Gran Plaza 2 thus follows the trend of integrating nature into shopping centers, so that they stop being those cold and impersonal places. The Oasiz shopping center, located in Torrejón de Ardoz, has already opted to surround itself with vegetation with almost 100,000 trees and shrubs. And the next on the list is La Vaguada -the oldest in Spain-, which is in full remodeling to be greener and more sustainable.