Assessing the Potential of a Disused Shopping Village by Comparing Adaptive Reuse Scenarios

Unpredictable events can impact the Real Estate market on multiple fronts, influencing stakeholders' decisions regarding new investment criteria. Within uncertainty, a preliminary analysis strategically supports the Decision-Makers (DMs) in making a more conscious choice. Among the set of complex decisions, the present contribution investigates the topic of adaptive reuse of a disused commercial area where several potential scenarios are compared. Technical requisites in terms of sustainability, feasibility and flexibility are considered. The approach selected to support the investigation is the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), a family of techniques that allows supporting decision-making processes characterized by multiple objectives to be pursued. Thus, several dimensions are assessed in order to select the most suitable function, namely Economic, Environmental and Social. A sensitivity analysis is moreover performed to measure the robustness of the final rank. Finally, the applied methodology offers reflection opportunities on the future best reuse scenario for commercial assets in urban and peri-urban areas under Social Governance Criteria and circular economy lenses.