Iasi local administration counsellors decided to forgo the litigation between Iasi City Hall and Transmixt regarding land property rights, in order to allow the Austrian consortium Billa to invest in Iasi.
Billa Romania, a subsidiary of the Austrian consortium holding a supermarket network bearing the same name, has announced it was planning to build a supermarket in Iasi, in an investment amounting to about 8 million dollars.
Works have not started yet because the City Hall claimed the land on which Billa had intended to build the supermarket, namely 1,540 square metres located near the Iasi Bus Station, belonged to the municipality. The City Hall had contested Transmixt’s right to own that land.
Iasi Mayor Constantin Simirad explained that, had the lawsuit continued, it would have taken another year and a half and Iasi would have missed an important investment. According to Simirad, following the lawsuit withdrawal, the City Hall will receive a 500 million lei sponsorship from the Austrian consortium.
Under such circumstances, Billa representatives will have to negotiate the conditions to take over the land only with Transmixt representatives.
At the end of March, Billa representatives had warned local authorities that such an investment could not start under uncertain conditions and, if the litigation was not settled earlier, they would move to Piatra Neamt.
Though the City Hall came up with another piece of land for the construction works, namely in Tatarasi district, Billa replied it wanted the first complex to be located within the Bus Station area.
This region is deemed as one of the best, as it is located between the Bus Station and the Railway Station and, besides, the distance between the Bus Station and the city’s downtown is only several hundred metres.
Billa Romania started operating in 1998 and it was the first international retailer having entered the Romanian market.
It has opened supermarkets in five large Romanian cities, namely Bucharest, Constanta, Ploiesti, Timisoara and Arad, while Iasi would be the next investment point, by opening two supermarkets.
Each store has a total average surface of 4,000 square metres, including the parking lot, while the sale surface is 2,500 square metres. The Austrian consortium began to expand in 1999, opening supermarkets in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Italy.
Romania’s consuming goods market was worth about 6 billion dollars in 2000, while a 5% increase is expected this year.
The retail market stands at about four billion dollars from the total consuming goods market. All the modern sale types are now available in Romania: hypermarket, supermarket and cash-and-carry.