The first pieces of construction equipment that will be used to build two new shopping centers are ready to start operating on the site of the former plants Tricodava in Drumul Taberei district and Electroaparataj in Pantelimon. Next to Titan park in southern Bucharest, Portuguese Sonae Sierra wants to start construction of a mall in December, while a Canadian group plans to start construction of a shopping center at the beginning of next year in Bucurestii Noi, northern Bucharest.
According to recent plans announced by foreign investors NEPI (South Africa), Auchan (France), Sonae Sierra (Portugal) and Benevo (Canada), investments of over half a billion euros will be conducted in Bucharest within the next 30 months.
Some of the investors have already started work, with construction sites being set up for two projects where the deadline is early 2015.
Mega Mall in competition with ParkLake
On the Electroaparataj platform in Pantelimon around ten pieces of construction equipment of TAB Construct were ready to start construction work on the future Mega Mall project developed by NEPI and by Austrian group Real4You, for which the construction permit has been obtained, as well as contracts with several tenants, among which is French hypermarket chain Carrefour. Right next to it German Kaufland has built a hypermarket which it plans to open by the end of the year.
The main competitor of Mega Mall is set to be ParkLake Plaza, close to Titan park, a EUR180 million investment by Sonae Sierra and Caelum Development. According to recent statements from investors, works will start in December this year, with completion planned for spring of 2016.
The two projects have been announced for several years. In the meantime they have been authorized and some of the spaces have been rented by retailers. The only question concerns financing for the two investments, given that banks are still reluctant to grant real estate loans.
Auchan starts work in Drumul Taberei
Construction equipment has also started to appear on another site in Bucharest, where French Auchan is to shortly start construction of a shopping center on the Tricodava platform in Drumul Taberei, following an investment of around EUR60 million.
The French company will also build Auchan’s future headquarters in Drumul Taberei. Auchan has the support of its shareholders to finance the Bucharest investment, as well as the shopping center on Brasov’s Tractorul plant platform, where works started a few weeks ago.
Canadian Benevo wants to finalize a mall on the Dacia Textila platform on Bucurestii Noi boulevard by early 2015, with the investment estimated by ZF at EUR100 million.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)