ING invests 400m euros in real estate projects

ING Real Estate Development, the real estate investment division of the Dutch financial group, famous for developing one of the largest malls in Europe – the Zlote Tarasy mall (photo) in Warsaw, wants to develop residential and retail projects in major Romanian cities, and erect office buildings in Bucharest, with three investments planned in Iasi, Galati and Brasov. “We will invest over 400 million euros in the three projects, which are scheduled to start this year. The projects will take place over 3 or 4 years, depending on the project,” said the Managing Director of the Romanian office of ING Real Estate Development Management, Siep Hoeksma. The projects will consist of both residential spaces – which target clients with average incomes, and retail spaces. The projects in Galati and Brasov will each attract investments worth around 200 million euros, while the one in Iasi will entail investments worth around 20 million euros. “In parallel with these projects, for which we are negotiating the purchase of 30 hectares of land, we also target other land acquisitions in cities with over 100,000 inhabitants. We want to develop retail projects within these cities,” specified Hoeksma. He added that, while so far, the developers’ strategy had been aimed at building retail projects on the outskirts of the cities, the next stage was to build this type of project inside cities.