The three rented the building in the Herastrau Park in northern Bucharest and plan to use the space to open what they say will be the largest beer house in Eastern Europe, which can seat 1,500 to 2,000 people.
The owner of Pavilion H, a precursor of today’s malls where tens of clothing, accessories and food shops are still operating, is Baneasa Investments, a company of local businessmen Puiu Popoviciu and Radu Dimofte. The current tenants, however, got a notice before Christmas informing them they will have to leave to make room for a beer house to be called Beraria H (Beer House H).
The new beer house located in Herastrau Park in northern Bucharest will require EUR2.5 million investments and its owners will be Vlad Dumitru (50%), Iulian Stanciu (25%) and Ioana Iancu (25%), the shareholders said. The annual rent for the space the beer house uses (4,300 square meters in the building itself and more than 3,000 square meters for the parking lot and patio) could amount to EUR300,000 to EUR600,000 a year.
“Vlad (Dumitru i.e.) and I were once partners in a company called Combox Delivery and did business very well together and stayed friends afterwards. Vlad came to me with an offer I could not refuse: to create the biggest beer house in Eastern Europe,” Iulian Stanciu says.
He is one of the most powerful local entrepreneurs in the IT sector, and owns IT&C distributor Network One Distribution, which posted more than EUR200 million revenue in 2012 and the Flanco electronics and computer retail chain, which posted EUR137 million revenue in the same year. Stanciu is also a shareholder and the chief executive of eMag, the largest online computer and electronics retailer in Romania.
Vlad Dumitru was general manager and one of the shareholders (50%) of IT products importer and distributor Combox Delivery, in which Network One Distribution bought 50% in 2008. Dumitru says he exited the company two years ago, so Beraria H is the second Stanciu-Dumitru partnership after Combox Delivery.
“This (new business i.e.) goes well with what I am doing now. More and more people are buying online and save time, which they can use to have fun,” Stancu explains, adding he has no other investments planned in this business but will take part in any other opportunities that may arise in the future.
He says he is merely an investor and will not take on an active role in the Beraria H project.
“I want a place that people appreciate and have fun while there, if it turns out like this, we will make profit.”
Pavilion H, built in the Herastrau Park close to Piata Presei Libere in northern Bucharest in the fifties, was intended to serve as exhibition space for large items and was converted into a shopping center for small shops in the early nineties.
Most of the space in Pavilion H is occupied but the contracts expire on February 3. Some tenants have already left, others are now packing up. Many will be forced to close up shop because they could not find a suitable space, says a small shop owner.
Some tenants say they will move to Big Berceni, a shopping center in southern Bucharest, whose owners are again Puiu Popoviciu and Radu Dimofte. That center, however, targets lower income customers, while the Pavilion H targets customers with higher incomes, tenants say.
Work on Beraria H will start once the tenants have left the building, says Vlad Dumitru, who hopes to have it ready for opening by the beginning of the summer.
The pavilion will accommodate the beer house and the space will also be used for shows, concerts and theater plays on weekends. “We will not use it for weddings, though,” Vlad Dumitru says.
The place will seat 1,500-2,000 people and operate as a beer house and restaurant so people watching the shows on weekends will sit at their tables. “We expect to have it packed on weekends.”
Dumitru did not provide any details about revenue expectations for Beraria H’s first year in business, merely saying he wants it to be “the biggest in its industry by revenue.”
According to ZF data, the largest restaurant & beer house in Romania, Caru’ cu Bere, posted more than EUR6 million revenue in 2012.
The entrepreneur did not say how high the rent for the space is, but judging from what market sources say, ZF estimates it might be 5% to 10% of the annual revenue. If the revenue is higher than Caru’ cu Bere’s, annual rent should stand at EUR300,000 to EUR600,000 a year or EUR25,000 to EUR50,000 a month.
“The investment in the place will be EUR2.5 million.”
Vlad Dumitru says he chose the Herastrau Park because of its potential for the restaurant business, considering the number of coffee shops and restaurants in the area. Beraria H will target all types of customers, not only those earning above-average income, he added.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)