$130m for five-star Radio House

A $130 million investment could change the Capital’s attraction centre and make some people in Bucharest rich beyond their wildest dreams.
Turkish-British Mimel Insaat – Orb Estates consortium will invest this money over three years in order to turn the former Radio House, which is just deteriorating at the moment, into a multipurpose complex to include a mall, a five-star hotel, deluxe flats and a conference centre, as well as a hospital and a car park.
Mimel Insaat is one of the leading construction companies in Turkey, while Orb Estates is a financial service firm based in the UK. The consortium yesterday signed a deal with the Transports Ministry, which is to supply the building and the adjoining piece of land, appraised at $19 million.
The development of the Dambovita Center complex on the location of the former Bucharest hippodrome, where the Radio House was built, could induce a surge in the real estate prices, analysts say.
“When the plan was first announced (i.e. last October) I sold two flats on the Stirbei Voda Street to two businessmen for a good price,” Dan Mircan, Keops Consulting real estate agency chairman told Ziarul Financiar. “Prices in that area will surely go up, as it happened in Bucharest Mall’s case. One can certainly see how the area will benefit from such a construction instead of a deserted building,” Mircan added.
“I don’t think residential segment prices will necessarily be affected, but the area will surely come to life again. Demand for homes in that area is set to go up, especially in the Cotroceni neighbourhood where it has fallen over the last few years, as people shifted focus to the northern Bucharest,” Eduard Mircea Uzunov, Regatta real estate agency chairman says.
“The nearby areas, such as Berzei or Stefan Furtuna, will also improve and see a surge in the land prices, particularly because some of the buildings here could be taken down making room for more modern ones,” Uzunov told Ziarul Financiar.
The first stage of the project is set to begin in September at the latest and entails the construction of the shopping complex to be finished by the end of next year. The hotel, the conference centre, the car park, the sports centre, the deluxe flats and the hospital will be built later.
“That is probably one of the best places to build a mall, as it is very close to the downtown area and to the second Carrefour, the one in the Orhideelor area,” Eduard Uzunov, Regatta’s chairman added.
Competitors do not seem to be afraid of the new project. “The potential of the retail market in Romania can still be greatly exploited. Competition only comes with benefits, both for the economic and for the social environment. Our purpose is to maintain the leading position on the market,” said Ali Ergun Ergen, CEO of Anchor Mall Development & Management SA, the specialised division of the Turkish Fiba Group, which operates the Bucharest Mall.