Immorent: Many cities are saturated in terms of large retail spaces

Immorent Romania, the real estate leasing subsidiary of Austrian group Erste, which is developing the Smart City real estate project in Northern Bucharest in partnership with businessman Dinu Patriciu, says many cities have reached saturation in terms of retail space, with the next wave of retail developments to be small ones, with a central position. “The time of the large retail parks is over, there are already one or two in large cities. The second stage of development for retailers will involve small, more central areas, and will target consumers with average incomes,” Bogdan Cernescu, general manager of Immorent Romania, told ZF. According to Cernescu, the first stage of retail development is over, after retailers made their way into large cities and into secondary ones. “I think it will take a year or two, because of the crisis, before we can see which are the areas where money is made and which are those that aren’t profitable,” Cernescu explains.