Freccia Rossa, another post-Christmas lockdown

Low shutters are nothing new. In addition to feeling isolated, you can walk through the galleries on the first floor – the second floor is only accessible during cinema opening hours – at Freccia Rossa. Even the last remaining major brand in the city’s shopping center will have its days numbered: the Jd Sports store will close at the end of 2022. In fact, it seems that the remaining staff and merchandise will be moved to the sales point in the Elnòs galleries, in Roncadelle. A move that follows that of other big brands, which began long before the Covid pandemic, and has continued unabated, to the point where to date there are less than a dozen businesses left open.

After saying goodbye to McDonald’s fast food – and the subsequent closure of the restaurant area – to Vodafone and Wind stores, the bar and beauty center closed at the beginning of November. In addition to the tobacco shop, Jean Louis David’s hairdresser, laundry, bar, Italmark supermarket and Tim’s shop still remain. But even the mall’s web portal isn’t the latest on what’s still open. The food court is certainly no longer there, nor are the big brands, and it is rumored that in the near future even the supermarket and cinema could close their shutters forever.

“The Freccia Rossa shopping center is undergoing a radical architectural and commercial redevelopment, aimed at relaunching and strategically repositioning the complex as a place for shopping, leisure and socializing for the city of Brescia and the whole province,” the home page continues. Mall location, up to date like the channels sociallast April. Not just to close the shutters and turn off the lights: even the heating could have been turned off. The question is increasingly legitimate: what is the future of the shopping center that opened in the center of Brescia in 2008?

The current owner, Resolute Asset Management Italy srl, has announced the possibility of selling again in the spring. “Two years after the outbreak of the pandemic – read a press release – the transformation project requires new resources and must be more persistent and radical than expected in 2019. Thus a path has been set that will lead to the identification of those who will be new investors in the center’s revitalization plan, which It will take care of the structure in its own interest and that will ensure the positioning of Freccia Rossa in the long term.”