Mega-retail-led regeneration in the shrinking city: Panacea or placebo?

One of the governance responses to urban shrinkage and the accompanying problems of city centre decline is mega-retail-led regeneration. It is a common regeneration tool that can, on one hand, create a popular shopping centre, but on the other hand, produce negative impacts on the city centre structures. Eventually, it can produce effects similar to urban shrinkage itself, the consequences of which should be reversed. This paper examines at the micro-spatial level the changing nature of selected services in the centre of the shrinking city of Ostrava, focusing primarily on analysing, identifying, and assessing the impacts of mega-retail-led regeneration represented by the development of the New Karolina shopping centre built within the historical city centre. Additionally, this text extends evidence of the impacts of such regeneration schemes and discusses their suitability in the case of shrinking cities. •Mega-retail-led regeneration weakened the retail function of the city centre.•Regeneration increased the spatial and functional polarisation of the city.•Benefits of regeneration are spatially limited and dependent on the economic cycle.•Such regeneration schemes seem not to be suitable for shrinking cities.•In order to avoid the above-mentioned pitfalls precautionary measures are recommended.