Iulian Dascalu: I believe in the market's potential

Iulian Dascalu, the biggest domestic shopping centre developer, who owns three operational malls in Iasi, Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca, says that, whereas two years ago retail was considered “the diamond of investments”, at present developers are much more cautious and even give up delivering the announced projects.

Dascalu considers the postponement of some projects is not a sign of trouble, but shows Romanian retail has matured. “(…) Currently, Romania provides enough real and financial space for the development of shopping centres,” stated Dascalu. He maintains malls outside Bucharest have proven to be profitable investments and says the group he runs will further focus on other cities than Bucharest. Dascalu’s most recent project is Iulius Mall Suceava, which will have a traffic of over 7 million visitors, according to the company’s estimates, and will attract inhabitants of neighbouring cities. “This autumn, the network will include the mall in Suceava that will entail total investments of 60m euros in the first stage and have an area of around 132,000 square metres. The 150 stores will bring customers some international brands: Auchan, Bricostore, Sephora, Cinema City, Intersport and others,” says Dascalu, adding the investment is a strategic one. In parallel, the company is expanding the existing shopping centres. Moreover, Dascalu says he will also invest in other shopping centres. “We expect to have 9 million visitors in Timisoara in 2008 and after the built area is brought to 173,000 square metres, the number will go to 12 million,” stated Dascalu. Iulius Mall Iasi representatives announced the number of visitors will rise by 2 million persons next year. For Cluj, too, the businessman estimates a number of 15 million visitors for Iulius Mall Cluj in 2009, up 25% from 2008. “In Romania, the square metres per capita average is 7 times lower than the EU average, where the stock amounts to almost 190 square metres for each inhabitant. Thus, even though the retail market seems oversaturated and ‘touched’ by some failures, I still believe in the potential of Romanian retail,” maintains Dascalu. Iulius Group also develops Palas project in Iasi, which entails investments of above 250m euros.