Drumul Taberei, another 5,000 new flats in 5 years

What strategy does the Spanish firm have for the building of around 5,000 flats without blocking the congested traffic of this area of Bucharest?
Gran Via wants to change the image of western Bucharest, where real estate investors have primarily focused on building shopping centres, and will invest some 50m euros in the infrastructure of projects to be developed in Drumul Taberei, reads this week’s BUSINESS Magazin.
“We already have traffic solutions. For instance, in the case of the project at Electrotehnica, we’ll provide space for an extra lane to expand the Timisoara boulevard and we’ll build a total of around 6,000 subterranean car parks,” says David Martinez Vallnona, general manager of the domestic subsidiary of Gran Via.
“We specialise in taking down plants and we like Drumul Taberei in particular, an area where shopping spaces have developed quite a lot, but people have a hard time getting to work to the other side of the city. This is why we decided for our most ambitious project, at Electrotehnica, to also include office spaces,” says Gran Via manager.
Electrotehnica was located on a 4.3-hectare plot near Plaza Romania and was purchased for 30m euros from New Century Holding US firm, which also sold Tricodava plant to Gran Via, for 42m euros.
Electrotehnica project will be “a mixed one, with a built area of 210,000 square metres and will entail investments of 250-300m euros,” says Vallbona. The project will be developed in stages, with the first one comprising a four-star 20,000 square metre hotel, two office buildings with an area of 35,000 square metres and seven blocks of flats. “(…) The project will also include stores with a total area of 15,000 square metres, and the total number of flats will stand at about 1,500,” specifies Vallbona.
On the most expensive plot of land it bought in Romania, the 5.3-hectare lot of Tricodava plant, the Spanish firm will invest around 200m euros in partnership with another Iberian firm. The project will include 2,000 flats, office and shops.
Another dead area in Drumul Taberei is the plot of land of Frigocom plant, which Gran Via bought last year for 17.5m euros from Italy’s Mondial Elite firm. “On the 3.1-hectare plot of land, we’ll build around 1,300 flats in the wake of investments put at 170m euros”.
The flats Gran Via plans to build in Drumul Taberei are intended for medium-income people and will sell for around 1,500 euros plus VAT.
Though the most expensive plots were bought in Bucharest, the company’s most advanced project is in Constanta.