Sources on the market told MEDIAFAX AFI Europe had reached a deal to buy the land Cora owns in Brasov, where AFI plans to develop a shopping mall for which it has already started talks with major retailers. The sources added a final decision has not been made yet.
AFI Europe and Cora officials have not commented so far.
Cora Romania bought the 40,000-hectare land in question in 2010 for EUR13 million and planned to develop a large shopping center following a EUR70 million investment. At the end of 2013, Cora announced it was looking for a partner for its development project.
AFI Europe operates two retail centers: AFI Palace Bucharest (opened in 2009) and AFI Palace Ploiesti (opened in 2013), and plans to develop a similar project also in Bucharest.
For shopping mall developments have been announced for Brasov: Coresi Shopping Resort, developed by Immochan, Korona Mall, developed by Poland’s Echo Investment, an extension on Carrefour’s shopping gallery by NEPI, and Cora.
So far, only the Coresi project is nearly completed and is set to be delivered at the end of March, following a investment of EUR60 million. Works on the other three projects have not started yet.
“AFI or any other competitor for Coresi cannot open a shopping center earlier than around 500 days. That means we have 450 days to own the market. The project is leased, we even have a waiting list of interested retailers, which encourages us to start the seconds phase of the project,” Tatian Diaconu, general manager of Immochan Romania, told MEDIAFAX.