Only pharmacies, hypermarkets or supermarkets and the public institutions renting space in malls remained open, while restaurants in the food court area switched to home deliveries and the other retailers closed.
Mall owners say they cannot estimate how much this halt of operations will cost them, but they do agree the economic impact will be really powerful.
“It is too early to assess the effects of this decision,” said the representatives of ParkLake, the newest mall in Bucharest, which opened in 2016. ParkLake has a gross lettable area of 70,000 square meters, accommodates more than 200 stores and has 12 million visitors a year.
Another mall opened in 2016 is Veranda Mall in the Obor area of Bucharest.
“It is hard to estimate (the impact) (…) It depends on how long it will remain closed and how much retail will be able to recover once the pandemic is gone,” Maria Craciun, manager of Veranda Mall, says.
“It will take a while until people regain confidence in the brick and mortar retail, but it depends on how things go in the world and in Romania. Unless we manage to stop the pandemic in a short time, the entire economy will be seriously affected,” she added, saying no decision had been made yet about the payment of the April rent by retailers, considering their physical stores are no longer operational.
Veranda Mall was developed by the Pogonaru family and the regional investment fund SIF Moldova and has about 9 milion visitors a year. The mall has a gross lettable rea of 35,000 square meters, accommodates more than 90 stores and has a take-up of 98%.
AFI Cotroceni, the most popular mall in Romania, which normally welcomes tens of thousands of people every day, too, had to close. The same goes for the malls held by Turkey’s Anchor Grup (Bucuresti Mall and Plaza Romania), as well as for those held by South Africa’s NEPI Rockcastle. NEPI Rockcastle officials say they cannot quantify the economic impact yet.
“We are constantly monitoring the situation, it is too early to be able to draw a conclusion, so we can’t provide an estimate of the economic impact,” its representatives said.
The rest of the country took the same steps.
All Iulius-branded malls in the country and Palas shopping center in Iasi closed, following the requirements of the authorities. Only the hypermarkets and pharmacies remained open.
“It is too early to say what the impact the current situation will have on our business will be, but we are analyzing and assessing the entire context, to be able to decide on strategies and solutions together with all our tenants,” Iulius officials in Romania said.
Palas Mall and Palas Shopping Street accommodate more than 270 stores, restaurants and cafes. Palas Iasi welcomes more than 19 million visitors a year.
Iulius malls in Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Suceava and Iasi have more than 200,000 square meters together. The mall in Timisoara is the largest Iulius by area, 73,000 square meters. Second largest is the mall in Cluj-Napoca, 50,000 square meters.
On Friday, before the government required all malls to close, Baneasa Shopping City in northern Bucharest and Arena Mall in Bacau had already announced they would shut down due to the coronavirus epidemic. Baneasa Shopping City announced it would remain closed until April 16, 2020, while Arena Mall until April 21.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)