Dascalu to introduce Zara in Timisoara and Iasi malls

Iulian Dascalu, head of Iulius Grup, has signed a partnership with Inditex group to introduce five of the Spanish company’s brands – Zara, Pull and Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, and Oysho, in the shopping centres he owns in Timisoara and Iasi.
Besides the ten stores that will open at the end of this year in Iasi, and early next year in Timisoara, Inditex will also launch brands in the City Park shopping complex in Constanta at the end of this month.
“Our development strategy envisages the other two brands with which we entered Romania via Baneasa Shopping City – Massimo Dutti and Zara Home, but the projects they are part of will be announced later,” stated Lucian Dorobantu, general manager of Inditex Romania.
The company currently owns 14 stores in Romania, with Zara and Pull and Bear present in each of the three stores. The total surface area of the new Inditex stores in the two Iulius Malls will stand at 6,200 square metres.
Zara, a Spanish-based group, has so far signed partnerships with TriGranit, the developer of the Polus Center shopping complex in Cluj, with Anchor Grup, which owns Plaza Romania shopping centre, and with Baneasa Investments, which opened Baneasa Shopping City last month.
In the shopping centre in northern Bucharest, Inditex opened stores for all its brands, with Zara ranked second among the biggest stores in the complex. Covering two floors, Zara takes up 1,500 square metres.
The expansion of Iulius Mall in Timisoara will generate an annual traffic flow of 12 million customers, and an annual sales volume of 250 million euros.
The new mall will be five-storey high, and cover a surface area of 177,613 square metres, of which 66,093 square metres will be available to rent. Once this new building has been completed, it will house the food court from the old wing. At the same time, Dascalu’s plans to expand in Timisoara also include the development of Saphir residential complex, which includes 273 flats in two buildings.
The flats will cover 90-100 square metres each, but their prices have yet to be set. Both the expansion of the Iulius Mall and the building of the new residential complex will employ 1,000 Chinese workers.
Iulius Grup signed a refinancing contract worth 175 million euros in September 2007 to expand the properties in Iasi, Cluj and Timisoara with German-based Eurohypo AG Bank, part of the Commerzbank group, the country’s second largest.
Dascalu currently controls a total lettable space of around 100,000 square metres throughout the three shopping centres he owns in Iasi, Cluj and Timisoara.
Although foreign developers have announced massive investments over the last few years, Dascalu is the only one who owns a network of fully operational shopping centres.