Hammerson-linked Via Outlets names new COO and CFO

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 27, 2018

UK retail property giant Hammerson’s Via Outlets joint venture has named two newly-created senior management positions with Otto Ambagtsheer joining as Chief Operating Officer and Peter Stals as Chief Financial Officer.

Ambagtsheer has key experience in the property sector and most recently served as Managing Director at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield for Benelux, a role he had held since May 2015. 

And his previous experience included working as Managing Director of Consumer Products & Services within Schiphol Group.

Meanwhile Stals joins after nearly five years at BlackRock, where he was Vice-President and then Director, serving as Head of Transaction Support and Valuations Secretary for EMEA Real Estate. 

The moves come as physical retail specialists are at a crucial turning point, working to assimilate the shift online into their operations, as well as to satisfy consumers who are hungry for experiences and to rebalance the tenant mix with more lifestyle firms rather than just fashion stores.

Via Outlets is a JV between Hammerson, APG, Value Retail and Meyer Bergman. It currently owns a portfolio of 11 premium fashion outlets across Europe, covering over 259,000 sq m and includes over 850 brands in nine European countries. It sees around 30 million visitors across the different locations in the portfolio each year and it saw over €1 billion in brand sales during 2017.