The Benevo group run by Canadian businessman Michael Topolinski announced years ago that it planned to develop a shopping center on the plot of land near the Jiului subway station and this spring even secured the construction permit for the mall, with work on it scheduled to begin in July.
“We are in final negotiations with the general contractors for Vic City and expect to announce the winning bidder in the next two weeks (construction period is 14 months because we have no underground),” Michael Topolinski told ZF.
Cora has a binding lease agreement with Vic City, he added.
Cora Romania officials did not provide any comment by press time. The French-held retailer has recently announced it halted expansion on the local market, but at the time added the plan to open a hypermarket in Bucurestii Noi remained.
Rival Kaufland inaugurated a hypermarket in that part of the city last week.
A hypermarket is one of the most important tenants of a mall and developers’ options are rather limited, considering the only chains on the market are Carrefour (which has a store nearby on Soseaua Chitilei), Kaufland (across the street) and Auchan.
The future tenants announced for Victoria City include retailers H&M, C&A, Hervis, Mango, Deichmann and Koton, as well as an eight-screen Cine Grand cinema.
Michael Topolinski was also involved in the Vulcan Value Center project currently developed by South Africa’s NEPI in southern Bucharest, and also owns the pump plant Aversa in Obor (near the Bucharest city center), which should be relocated some time in the next few years to make room for a real estate development.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)