Southern Bucharest, the new 'star' area for shopping malls

The Southern area of Bucharest, a location previously shunned by real estate developers, has unexpectedly become the new “star” for mall developers, with three shopping centre projects (City Mall, Grand Arena and Sun Plaza) set to be situated approximately two kilometres apart from each other. The latest project to be announced is Grand Arena, located at the intersection of the Metalurgiei Boulevard and Turnu Magurele Road. The main anchor announced by Prospector Consulting (in charge of the building’s lettable space) is Carrefour hypermarket, which will cover 8,000 square metres. The shopping gallery will comprise 200 stores, with a lettable space of 32,000 square metres, whilst the overall project is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of this year. The shopping centre will also include stores that specialise in electronics, home appliances, furniture, as well as a food court and an entertainment area with a bowling alley and pool tables. Unfortunately, the project’s developer, Euroinvest Intermed, was unavailable to comment on the value of the investment. Less than two kilometres away, another mall, Sun Plaza, is under construction at Piata Sudului. The project’s completion has been postponed until next year, but the mall’s main anchors will be a Cora hypermarket, a bauMax DIY store and a Mobexpert furniture store. The developers behind this project are EMCT and Sparkassen, with investments that total over 100 million euros. Two metro stations away from Sun Plaza, in the Eroii Revolutiei area, lies the only mall open in the South of the city – City Mall (photo), which opened over three years ago.