Seven large shopping centers are likely to open in Arad, Oradea, Craiova, Constanta, Iasi, Botosani and Bucharest by the end of the year, after the investors on the mall market made a powerful comeback this year, lured by the resumption of the expansion plans of international retailers.
Shopping center development was halted in the first two years of crisis, yet the end of this year might be a reason to talk about a boom, considering projects with a lettable area of 300,000 square meters are scheduled to be delivered, following cumulated investments of about half a billion euros.
The largest projects will be opened in Craiova, Constanta and Iasi. Bucharest will see the opening of the first phases of the Colosseum retail park on Soseaua Chitilei – that is, Leroy Merlin and Carrefour stores along with a small shopping gallery.
The crisis caused shopping centers to close; some of them went insolvent or even bankrupt. This, however, made developers going ahead with mall construction plans work harder on the pre-rental process so that most projects scheduled for this fall are already 80% to 90% taken up by powerful retailers such as Auchan, Carrefour, Cora, Inditex, H&M and C&A.
The investment in a series of such projects is fully justified, with Craiova as one example in this regard. The shopping center on the Electroputere site will be the first mall in the city.
In Arad and Oradea, however, where the Galleria and Oradea Shopping City malls are due to be opened, competition will be fiercer, considering there are already shopping complexes in the two cities.
Constanta and Iasi are considered two of the best cities to open a shopping center after Bucharest, so that the development of the new projects, Maritimo and Palas, is not surprising.
About EUR2 to EUR3 billion worth of products are sold through malls in Romania every year, while owners make more than EUR300 million from rent.
The first of the new wave of openings is scheduled for September 15 in Bucharest: the opening of the Leroy Merlin DIY store in the Colosseum center. Next comes the extension of the Baneasa Shopping City, on September 23, which will include a multiplex movie theater with thirteen screens. The second phase of the Colosseum, whose most important tenant is Carrefour, should open on October 18.
The first mall to open outside Bucharest this fall is Arad’s Galleria, on October 6, whose list of tenants includes Cora, Flanco, Inditex, Mango, Pure Fitness and Cinema City. Owner GTC announced the 33,000 square meter mall was 99% pre-let.
Austria’s Immofinanz will open the Maritimo project in Constanta on October 28, a 50,000 square meter mall, which is 90% pre-rented already. Tenants include Zara, H&M, C&A, and New Yorker, as well as Germany’s Peek & Cloppenburg. There is also Auchan, which bought the space inside the project allocated for its hypermarket.
The first confirmation for November came from Botosani, where European Retail Park, comprising a 9,500 square meter Carrefour and a 5,500 square meter shopping gallery hosting Domo, New Yorker, Leonardo and Orsay, among others, is announced for opening in the first part of the month.
The Electroputere mall in Craiova should open in November, as well, but the developers have yet to say exactly when. The project is 90% full, with the list including Zara, H&M, C&A and New Yorker, as well as Decathlon, Kiabi, Waikiki and Elvila, and Auchan as the food segment anchor.
Developers of Oradea Shopping City and Palas Iasi are still saying they will open in 2011, but have yet to specify when.
Iulian Dascalu, developer of Palas Iasi, says the opening date of the mall behind the Palace of Culture, a landmark building of Iasi, will be announced at the of the September, while officials of Oradea Shopping City, held by businessman Gabriel Popoviciu, expect to open in 2011.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu; Editing by Radu Bostan)