The first retail park launched by Scallier in Romania is a 6,200 sqm (GLA) project, housing an array of recognised Romanian and international brands, notwithstanding some Polish ones. Tenants include the sports shop Martes, as well as Sinsay, KiK, Jysk, Pepco or Flanco, also restaurants such as Vibe and City Doner. The retail park in Rosiori is now 100% leased. Two more retail parks are currently under construction in Romania. One of them, a retail park in Focsani with an area of 5,000 sqm. (GLA), will open in mid-November. Nearly 90% of this project has already found its tenants.
“Retail parks in Romania are unchangeably popular with local and international tenants. This is due, among other things, to the increasing purchasing power of Romanian citizens, as well as to the shortage of modern retail space in small and medium-sized Romanian cities. We fill this gap by locating our projects in places with little to no offer of recognised fashion brands, and in the immediate vicinity of our large and extensive food assortment operators. In this way, we create traditional commercial locations. The offer available there complements each other and fully covers the needs of local communities and given the priority effect we enjoy in the local markets, we build significant competitive advantages,” says Wojciech Jurga, Scallier’s Managing Partner responsible for the company’s development in Romania. “In a nutshell: the commercial projects we are preparing will work to the benefit of all parties involved in their creation: tenants, customers, financial institutions and our investors, to whom we are grateful for entrusting us with their funds and making it possible to develop real estate on the growing Romanian market” – emphasizes Wojciech Jurga.
The Romanian market is currently highly polarized. Most of the modern retail space concentrates in the capital and some other major cities. Residents of smaller towns must often travel for several hours in pursuit of well-known fashion brands. This means not only a waste of time and money, but also disorganization of the day. The problem has been noticed by retail chains, which turn to us when looking for space in non-central Romanian locations. The retail park in Rosiorii de Vede is a prime example of this. We leased the available space a few months before the project was put into operation. This trend is confirmed by our other developments where we have already leased space or are in advanced negotiations for space. We are planning the next opening in November, in Focsani, and we expect that on the day of the opening the occupancy rate for this retail park will also reach 100%,” says Adrian Aleman, Development Director at Scallier Romania.
“Leaving aside the favourable market conditions Romania offers, retail parks are the type of assets that are resilient to market turbulence, including the dynamic development of e-commerce. They are complementary by being an essential element for the distribution of goods to target customers who shop online. They are also flexible, which means that they are easily adaptable to the changing expectations of local communities. For example, a major difference between retail parks in Poland and those in Romania is the rich gastronomic offer. Customers in Romania expect from a retail location not only a diverse range of goods and services, but also a gastronomic and recreational offer, hence the strong representation of the restaurant sector in our parks, as well as spaces designed for families with children, including playgrounds,” emphasizes Wojciech Jurga. “We are opening two more parks in the coming months and the construction of further facilities will start soon,” he concludes.
The retail park in Rosiorii de Vede is BREEAM environmentally certified, underlining the quality of Scallier’s sustainable retail developments. The international company Gleeds is responsible for the certification of the property.
