Iulius Mall Suceava is the only shopping center the businessman owns that has no multiplex cinema, while Suceava, a city with about 100,000 people is the smallest in Romania where H&M agreed to open a store.
“After C&A opened a store in Iulius Mall Suceava in September, H&M will open one, too, next year. We also reached an agreement with Village Cinemas for a multiplex theater, as they are expanding on the local market,” said Dascalu, who is the largest Romanian owner of shopping centers.
Village Cinemas will also operate a multiplex cinema in the Palas complex in Iasi (NE Romania), a EUR260 million investment that Dascalu will complete next April. H&M has already opened stores in Iulius Mall Timisoara and Cluj and will open one in Palas in 2012.
Iulius Mall Suceava’s lettable area stands at almost 50,000 square meters; tenants include Auchan, Flanco, Sprider Stores and Intersport.
Although revenue of the mall in Suceava did go up by 11% in the first nine months of this year and reached EUR5.67 million, this center is the lowest performing of the four the businessman owns, by revenue per square meter, after Timisoara, Cluj and Iasi.
Competition in Suceava is higher than in any other city, though, against the number of inhabitants, as the city has about 1 square meter of retail space per capita, which is even higher than in Bucharest.
Iulius Mall Suceava’s main competitor is Shopping City Suceava, which is located close to it, and has as its anchors Carrefour, BauMax, Mobexpert, New Yorker, Deichmann and Takko. There is also a Galleria shopping center in the city, owned by Israeli-based GTC.