The EUR70 million investment will be its most important this year, according to ZF’s calculations.
Corall, whose construction started in the spring of 2012, was initially scheduled for completion in June 2013 but tenants were told it would open two months early. Cora officials did not provide any comment.
According to the company’s statements when it first announced the mall in 2011, Corall will include an 8,500 square meter Cora, a 25,000 square meter-shopping gallery, a movie theater and a food court.
Corall will be a medium-sized mall and compete with Maritimo, Tom, City Park and Tomis. Once Corall opens, Constanta will be the city with most malls in the country, second after Bucharest.
Cora is the not the only retailer to invest in malls in Romania, as its rivals Carrefour and Auchan have announced similar plans.
“We expect developments of new shopping centers from them (the hypermarket chains i.e.),” says Oana Iliescu, chief executive of real estate consultant DTZ Echinox.
The reason for Cora’s investment and Carrefour and Auchan’s plans is, as DTZ Echinox’s Oana Iliescu says, the scarcity of new developments on the local market. “Retailers are therefore trying to drive expansion on the hypermarket segment themselves (by developing shopping centers and malls i.e.).”
Auchan will develop malls in Brasov (central Romania) and in Bucharest (west of the city on the site for the former Tricodava plant).
Carrefour partnered with South Africa’s NEPI, and the two have already opened Ploiesti Shopping City (about 60 kilometers north of Bucharest).
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)