City Mall sold for 25 million euros before completion

City Mall, the shopping complex in southern Bucharest that was developed by Sirius Investittii, a company controlled by Israeli businessmen, has been bought by Jaguar Development. Jaguar Development, which is owned by an Israeli company and a Greek businessman, paid 25 million euros for the complex.

The complex was supposed to open this autumn, but the new buyer decided to expand the total built area of the project by more than 5,000 square metres by adding one more floor.

“A new floor will be added, to give City Mall four floors. There will be 3 underground levels for parking and storage, and 4 levels above ground. The additional costs of expanding the commercial area are included in the deal; the initial constructor, Virgo Group, will be retained,” explained Valentin Preda, Jaguar Development’s chief executive.

This is not the first deal in Romania for Jaguar Development. This company has so far invested 60 million euros in various residential and office projects. But the acquisition of City Mall represents its first acquisition of commercial space for shops.

“We are interested in another commercial project, which is even more important than this one and is located in the northern part of city,” Preda added, though without going into detail. This will be a greenfield project and not another takeover.

Once the City Mall project is completed, the investor plans to develop a series of warehouses and a logistics centre, and has already bought land on the outskirts of Bucharest for this purpose, its officials say.

Jaguar Development’s shareholders are the Greek Ioannis Papalekas and a Bucharest trading company whose majority shareholder is the Israeli firm Villar Properties Ltd, Trade Registry data reveal.

The City Mall project was initiated by Sirius Investitii, a company owned by a group of Israeli investors, that initially allocated $20 million to the completion of the complex. City Mall was supposed to be the first neighbourhood shopping complex in Bucharest, and located in the southern part of the city, which is poorer than others.

City Mall will thus be targeting average and below average income groups, unlike Bucuresti Mall, the largest shopping complex in Romania, that targets average and above-average income groups.

After completion of City Mall next spring, the complex should occupy some 36,000 sqm, with the built area having increased by approximately 5,500 sqm from the initial plans for 19,000 sqm, of which more than 4,000 sqm will be used for restaurants and coffee shops.

Sirius Investitii has announced it is considering similar projects throughout the country, the first of which will be in Pitesti.

City Mall has been 90% pre-leased, according to Eduard Uzunov, general manager of Regatta real estate company, the exclusive promoter of the project. Companies that have signed pre-leases include: the operator of the Primavara supermarket chain, Altex, Ultra Pro Computers, Diverta, Nike, Puma, Kenvelo and MobiFon.
alexandru.cerchez@zf.ro ; ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro