The land where the Unirii View tower will be built, close to Bucharest’s Unirii Square, was originally fully held by the Casuneanu family, owners of PA & CO construction company. But in 2008 the family sold 75% of the land to Belgian Yves Weerts, a businessman who used to control the largest logistics operator in Benelux – Weerts Transport & Logistics, which he sold that same year. Weerts is also a keen pilot, who competed in Belgium’s rally, as well as in one race of last year’s FIA GT3 European Championship.
How did the Belgian end up partnering with Casuneanu to develop the third tallest office building in the city, which will be 94-m tall?
“We came to Bucharest in 2007 with the intention of developing an office building. A real estate consultant showed us around, took us to Pipera, where a lot was being built at the time, but we told him to turn the car around and take us to the city center. Once in the center, we got a city map and saw that the two major tube lines intersected at two points – in Victoriei Square, where there were also a lot of projects, and in Unirii Square,” recalls Ray Fidler, the manager who oversees Weerts’s businesses in Central and Eastern Europe from Poland.
So far only own funds
The Briton says this is how he ended up looking for land in the Unirii Square area together with Weerts. This is where Casuneanu had a 2,700 square-meter plot through C & I Building. The Belgian made an offer for the land, but Costel Casuneanu only agreed to part with his 75% stake, so his two sons – Costel (29) and Ionut (26) remained in the project with stakes of 12.5% each.
Fidler and Weerts do not give details on the price paid for the land, but considering prices at the time, the transaction can be put at around EUR6-7 million. After buying the land, the company started the authorization process for building a 30-floor tower, but the project was “shrunk” from the very start by the commissions within the Bucharest City Hall.
After a new mayor of Bucharest was elected in 2008, the city’s chief architect was also replaced, so the authorization process had to be resumed. As the crisis hit, the project suffered new changes, but the Belgian is now willing to go through with the investment estimated at around EUR40 million.
“If the situation remains unchanged on the local market, we will go ahead. If it improves, that’s even better. (…) So far we have only invested our own funds, but as pre-rental contracts start to emerge, we will also access bank funding,” Yves Weerts told ZF.
The Belgian is working with real estate consultancy The Advisers Knight Frank to rent out the spaces in the building, which has a lettable area of 18,700 square meters, and says he expects an average rent of EUR16/square meter per space.
Works have already started, with Weerts hoping to complete the building by the end of next year.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)