{"id":4943,"date":"2010-08-03T07:00:32","date_gmt":"2010-08-03T05:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/en\/?p=4943"},"modified":"2014-03-12T16:39:27","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T14:39:27","slug":"7-small-news-about-retail-real-estate-market-that-you-probably-didnt-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/2010\/08\/03\/7-small-news-about-retail-real-estate-market-that-you-probably-didnt-know\/","title":{"rendered":"7 small news about Retail Real Estate market (that you probably didn\u2019t know)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is my birthday. I become 35 and I enter in the second part of the 4th<\/sup> decade of my life. I was thinking to write today about 35 lessons I learned in Romania throughout the 6,5 years I am here, but I decided not to. Instead, let me share with you 7 small news about the Retail Real Estate market that I am sure you will find them interesting… (so today I will be a… “journalist”, like I used to be in Greece for many years)<\/p>\n

1. Gucci opens its first store in Romania<\/strong>
\n It is a fact. There is a gentleman who took the franchise of Gucci for Romania and he has rented about 300 sq.m. at Hilton hotel. This is why you see the former area of “La Brasserie” caf\u00e9 being renovated. Rumors say that the rental agreement was sealed at the levels of 90 Euro \/ sq.m., a record price for Calea Victoriei during 2010 (but I don’t have official confirmation about this figure).<\/p>\n

I know that many owners will read this price and will ask the same for their properties too, but this location is unique and can not be compared with any other. Not even with the corner property across the street.<\/p>\n

I wish to the… brave investor good luck and success in his investment!<\/p>\n

2. Another famous multinational luxury brand to follow?<\/strong>
\n I also heard that another famous multinational luxury brand will be present in Romania during the following 12 months. The agreement has been signed (again a franchise) and I think that right now they are searching for the appropriate location, in order to create their mono-brand store.<\/p>\n

3. A super new concept enters in Romanian market, at a shocking price…<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the best retail concepts that I have ever seen in Greece is JUMBO (www.jumbo.gr<\/a>). An very intelligent businessman has created a chain of multistores, where you can find thousands of projects for children (and not only for them). 80% of everything there costs less than 5 Euro and its success was supported by very funny controversial advertising campaigns.<\/p>\n

My information says that this project will come in Romania too. Without the same brand, but with the same business strategy. What is interesting is that the entrepreneur who will develop it in Romania succeeded to rent some thousands of sq.m. in a Mall for the shocking price of 5 (five) Euro \/ sq.m. His long experience in Romania helped him, plus his successful background here. But I think that this deal means much more, especially for the owners of this Mall…<\/p>\n

4. A Mall being transformed into… Retail Park!<\/strong>
\n There is another Mall, whose owner made several mistakes in the concept, the design… almost everything about this project. No surprise that it failed to reach success. But he was brave enough to realize all these and to be honest with himself. He found a viable solution, transforming it into a Retail Park! People have not realized it yet, but quite soon you will see the last of the “small” tenants emptying the place, leaving their place for companies with larger surfaces. An interesting experiment…<\/p>\n

5. A bank opened 15 new branches, but suddenly froze expansion plans<\/strong><\/p>\n

Believe it or not, this year a well known bank here in Romania expanded its network by 15 new branches. They claim that this decision helped them obtain excellent locations at affordable prices. Sometimes they even found empty spaces, former branches of other banks and the necessary modifications were really small.<\/p>\n

But why did they suddenly freeze this project? What happened?<\/p>\n

6. “All people want to enter Lipscani” (but some others want to exit from there…)<\/strong>
\n I know, the new business trend is to open a restaurant, coffee shop (or anything else) in Lipscani. Many people search for properties there, allowing the owners to behave with arrogance and fitze, like in 2006 – 2008. Some of the asked prices are really… “scary” and it is clear: Very few people learned something from this crisis. Most of them are determined to search for any opportunity in order to break any possible record of greed.<\/p>\n

But behind this “surface” of high demand and low supply, there is also another reality that I discovered while talking to people:<\/p>\n