AFI Brasov has a lettable area of 45,000 square meters and consists of two office buildings and a retail center. The total investment in the project, which includes the shopping center and the first office building, amounts to some EUR148 million, per data provided by company officials.
AFI Brasov is the largest real estate development whose delivery was expected in 2020. The shopping mall within the project in Brasov will be the third shopping center in the portfolio of AFI Europe, which also holds AFI Cotroceni in capital Bucharest and AFI Ploiesti. AFI also holds some 92,000 sqm of office space within the AFI Park and AFI Tech Park projects in Bucharest.
AFI Europe has recently completed the acquisition of NEPI-Rockcastle’s Romanian office portfolio consisting of four office space projects. The transaction is the largest on the Romanian office space market, being valued at EUR307 million and accounting for a third of the real estate investment market estimated at nearly EUR1 billion in 2020.
Overall, 160,000 sqm of shopping centers are expected to be delivered until the end of 2020, taking into account only the projects covering over 10,000 sqm, per a ZF analysis.
The first half of 2020 was the most difficult period for the local modern retail market over the past 20 years, with the Romanian authorities deciding at the end of March 2020 to suspend the business activity of all stores deemed non-essential, which operate within shopping malls, with a view to containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Retail activities were resumed gradually starting June 15.