‘Let’s turn mall roofs into farms’

Bracknell-shopping-centre-regen-THUMB.gifMAPIC 2015: Flat shopping centre rooftops could be turned into income-producing farms, Germany-based company Urban Farmers told an audience at MAPIC in Cannes today.

The group is currently active in Basel, Berlin, The Hague and Zurich but is preparing to break into the US market.

Urban Farmers said that property owners should think of their rooftops as assets, because they have to be maintained along with the rest of the building.

The firm said that provided roofs were flat and cover at least 1,000 sq m, then it would rent them for an average of $2m (£1.m) pa.

Supplying a rooftop farm also comes with other benefits apart from income, said the group. It can lock in tenants by supplying food to grocery stores or restaurants and provides an interaction with customers.

samantha.mcclary@estatesgazette.com

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