The results of Plaza Romania, opened ten years ago in the western part of the city, started to decline in 2009 when the twice bigger AFI Palace Cotroceni mall opened close to it. The revenue of the mall stood at EUR7.2 million in 2013, down 23% on the previous year and 63% lower than in 2009.
“We’ll start remodeling of Plaza with the main entrance from the Timisoara Boulevard after Easter, which means in about a month. We will also start remodeling of Bucuresti Mall sooner, in May or June instead of August as initially scheduled,” Razvan Gaita, general manager of Anchor Grup, told ZF, holding in his hand the construction permit issued by the City Hall.
The shareholders of the Anchor group decided to allocate EUR25 million for the remodeling of the two malls in Bucharest and the stabilization of their financial situation.
“The remodeling of Plaza will be done in three phases during which 25% to 35% of the mall will be closed.”
Plaza continues to operate and has even attracted new tenants, especially Turkish groups such as LC Waikiki, Koton, D’S Damat and Kahve Dunyasi, a coffee shop chain that has recently entered London market. These networks are due to open stores in Plaza Romania in the coming months, Gaita says.
Traffic in the mall has gone up several percent lately to 25,000 visitors during days when various events are held.
“We have to start remodeling because we are pressured by competition. We’ve got the AFI mall close to us, Cora (hypermarket i.e.) behind us, I’ve seen Auchan (hypermarket i.e.) progress fast with construction work (on a new store a bit farther than the other two but still close i.e.) and Kaufland is building, too (near the under construction Auchan i.e.) and will also have a shopping gallery. Several Plaza tenants have confirmed they would expand their space in the mall but want to see remodeling done first.”
Part of Plaza, 10,000 square meters to be precise, will be turned into office space at a later date, “once a letter of intent with a potential tenant has been signed”, while the nearby Anchor Plaza Metropol, a 37,000 square meter unfinished structure that was supposed to be used as offices will be converted into apartments or a hospital.
While competition is making its presence felt in the west side of Bucharest where Plaza operates, on the opposite side of the city Bucuresti Mall’s competitors, Mega Mall and ParkLake Plaza are under construction. The two will offer 70,000 square meters of lettable area.
Remodeling of Bucuresti Mall will start earlier than planned because of competition over retailers, so the mall wants to be done sooner than its competitors, Razvan Gaita said.
Bucuresti Mall posted 57 million lei (EUR12.8 million) revenue in 2013, down 11% in 2012, as part of it was left unoccupied in view of the remodeling process. (EUR1=RON4.4670)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)