Project management and construction consultant Vitalis Consulting will handle the refurbishment and also provide cost management, site management and safety services.
The former department store will be converted into an office building and keep retail space only on the ground floor. Vitalis Consulting did not verify the information.
“Magazinul Bucharest is a reminder of some golden days, as it is one of the oldest and most famous stores in Bucharest, where one could find everything from apparel to photo cameras, musical instruments and home appliances,” Vitalis officials said. The 4,235 square meter building is located on I.C. Bratianu Blvd in Bucharest’s Sector 3, between Piata Universitatii and Piata Unirii and their subway stations.
Magazinul Bucuresti actually consists of two buildings, one constructed in 1929 and the other ten years later. It will undergo seismic retrofitting and remodeling but will retain the façade, since it is in a heritage district.
The former department store, one of the most important shopping centers before the fall of communism in Romania in 1989 was bought by two Dutch investors – Heinen Gerard and Baakman Johannes Jozefus Maria, from the heirs of the Bunescu family, the foundes of the store almost a hundred years ago for more than EUR4 million in 2013. The building is now derelict, with windows covered in graffiti, and nothing to remind passers-by of its former glory.
The new owners are among the most important Old Town space owners and one of them also a shareholder of the furniture manufacturer Quadra Invest, ZF has found. Back in 2013, the representatives of the investors said the plan was to refurbish Magazinul Bucuresti and rent it to retailers. The decision to convert it into an office building comes at a time when office space market in Romania is doing vey well and moreover, retail in Old Town in Bucharest was not as successful as in other European capitals.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)