Billionaire developer of Casa Radio project: Romania is a "sleeping beauty"

Israeli billionaire Mordechay Zisser, who controls the largest five-star hotel in Romania in terms of number of rooms – Radisson SAS, located in the centre of Bucharest, as well as one of the largest real estate projects on the local market – Dambovita Center, describes Romania as a “sleeping beauty”, a place where he intends to invest two billion euros over the next three years. “Depending on how soon we can secure construction permits, we will invest two more billions in Romania over the next three years, despite the global economic crash. The company is liquid and now, even if it took us eight years to finalise the hotel, we have the proof that we can do many things in Romania,” said Zisser. Via Plaza Centers, Zisser is involved in the development of at least seven other mixed projects and shopping centres in various cities around Romania, with the main project being the one in Bucharest, on the plot accommodating Casa Radio building, in the Eroilor area of Bucharest, which entails investments worth around one billion euros. “Shopping centres fetch higher and more constant revenues than hotels, but in real estate, one needs to have a diversified portfolio. I don’t think we can talk about an oversaturation of the shopping centre market in Bucharest, considering that in Budapest, for example, we have built and sold the 36th shopping centre, in a city with around two million inhabitants,” said Zisser. He also has operations in sectors such as the medical or the IT sector, and intends to relocate a plant that manufactures medical instruments from the US to Romania. “At present, there is a team looking at Romania and eventually the plant could have around 400-500 employees,” added Zisser.