The development undertaken in partnership with NEPI required a EUR26 million investment in the building with a 19,000 square meter lettable area.
The two investors bought the land of the former Tricotaje Somesul plant located about one kilometer away from the center of Cluj and early last year started work on the first of the three buildings of this project, which should have 54,000 square meters in lettable area by the end of 2016.
“Considering the response from tenants we will soon start work on the second phase. We have agreed on the contractual terms with the construction company that will work on the second building but have not signed the deal yet,” said Ovidiu Sandor, chairman and shareholder of Moda-Tim group.
“Negotiations about the refinancing of the investment in the first building via a bank loan have reached an advanced stage.”
He had EUR13 million available for the investment after selling the first three office buildings of the CBC project to NEPI, a fund that has amassed a EUR1 billion property portfolio in Romania in the last five years.
The take-up of the building is about 55% at the time of completion, and the major tenants include Deloitte, Three Pillar, National Instruments and Yardi. The former two of them are also renting space in CBC.
NEPI expects the first building of the project to be fully rented by yearend, said Lori Collin, NEPI’s leasing manager for office space.
The investors say rent in the building ranges from EUR13 to EUR15 per square meter, the ‘most expensive in Cluj’, while the retail space on the ground floor can be had for up EUR25 per square meter rent.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)