The largest retail park in Romania, with several stores built in “boxes” around an open-air parking lot, is Baneasa, in the north of Bucharest, controlled by businessman Gabriel Popoviciu.
In the rest of the country, however, at least four other such projects in Sibiu, Iasi, Constanta and Braila have similarly “ambitious” plans, attracting a large enough number of international retailers with a presence on the market, which have stores that fit this retail format. Swedish-held IKEA is the exception, with Baneasa being the only project that accommodates a store of the furniture giant, which gives it a major competitive edge.
However, strong retail parks are not short on tenants, considering that after an expansion of Braila’s European Retail Park was completed in spring, two other retail parks are currently being expanded to make room for new tenants.
“The first stage of a project to improve the Sibiu Shopping Center project is in the course of being implemented. It includes the construction of a new gallery between the hypermarkets Real and Carrefour, as well as the relocation of several tenants to make room for C&A and Kiabi to enter the fashion area in September 2011,” say representatives of Argo Real Estate, owner of Shopping City Sibiu, in a financial report. “The second stage of the project entails the creation of a new lobby for the mall entrance, which will also be delivered in September 2011. A third stage of the project will include a multiplex cinema, which is in the negotiation phase.”
Another project currently being expanded is Constanta’s TOM, where Austrian-held kika will open a furniture store in the spring of next year. kika is not the project’s only new retailer, though, as it also includes Carrefour, Bricostore and Media Galaxy stores.
South Africa’s NEPI opened a new wing at its European Retail park in Braila in spring, where a Cinema City multiplex, a skating rink, and a new food-court area were launched.
Two other retail parks – ERA Shopping Park in Oradea and Iasi – are also undergoing expansion, with the developers relying on malls being built within the projects, modeled on Bucharest’s Baneasa Shopping City in the Baneasa retail area.