The delay was caused by the bad weather in February, among others, when temperatures in Iasi went down to minus thirty degrees Celsius.
This is the biggest bet of the businessman from Iasi, who owns the retail center network Iulius Mall, operating in Iasi, Timisoara, Suceava and Cluj.
“We and the major brands that are our partners decided to inaugurate Palas on [May 31]. A lot of traffic in the summer months will come from the Romanians abroad vacationing here,” Iulian Dascalu told ZF.
The project’s tenants include Auchan, H&M, C&A, Waikiki and Stefanel, as well as cinema operator Village Cinemas. A contract with Inditex has also been signed recently, so that it will open six stores in Palas Iasi.
“Palas Mall will have an occupancy rate of about 97%, an excellent percentage if we take into account the difficult period the market went through,” Dascalu said.
The businessman has already completed the office buildings in the project, and should deliver the shopping center with a lettable area of more than 54,000 square meters, an apartment building and two hotels, as well as a park that will connect the new buildings to the Palace of Culture (a landmark building of Iasi) located in the center of the city, this year.
With this project operational, Dascalu will be making more than EUR50 million in rents a year, considering the four malls he owns generated EUR41.4 million in 2011.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)