“We’ve had five retailers with no presence in Romania come look at Veranda and show a lot of interest in the past two weeks. We have the approval of the bank for an expansion of Veranda,” Andrei Pogonaru, mall owner, said at the Real Estate & Construction Forum.
The owner expects significant increases in sales, now that December is near. Last December was Veranda’s best month so far.
Veranda Mall has 93 tenants and traffic has been increasing monthly, but Andrei Pogonaru did not say how many shoppers it serves in one month.
Veranda, developed by Prodplast Imobiliare, has a 30,000 square meter retail area in addition to 15,000 square meters of outdoor space, where it opened a children’s playground and a skating rink.
Tenants include Carrefour (10,000 square meters), H&M, C&A, LC Waikiki, CCC, Deichmann, Triumph, Pepco, Yves Rocher, Sephora, Noriel, Splend’Or, Melkio, Diverta, Catena and Sensiblu.
The mall required an about EUR60 million investment, 60% contributed by shareholders, while about EUR28.5 million came from Raiffeisen Bank SA and Raiffeisen Bank International AG. SIF Moldova (SIF2.RO), too, invested 65 million lei (EUR14 million) in the development of the shopping center. (EUR1=RON4.6198)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)