Two hundred million dollars. This is how much the 15 million Bucharest Mall visitors spent last year. "The first months of this year were even more profitable than the same period of the previous years," said Ali Ergun Ergen, general manager of Anchor Mall Development&Management SA, the division of the Turkish group Fiba that operates the Bucharest Mall. According to Ergen, the number of visitors is set to increase by 10-15% this year, thus exceeding 17 million.
"The sales of Bucharest Mall tenants will also increase this year," said the Turkish official, who would not give any figures, though. The results exceeded the forecasts made by the Turkish group in September 1999, when the Bucharest Mall was dedicated. Thus, Fiba wanted to start building the second Mall earlier than initially scheduled (five years after the opening of the first mall). Construction works for the second Mall, located in the Lujerului-Militari area, were supposed to start last fall. Still, because of Turkey's economic woes, Fiba decided "to be careful with investments," so the project was put on the waiting list.
"We are still looking at the funding options for the Militari project. But the project will materialise in the years to come," Ergen adds. Half of the Bucharest Mall visitors last year were women, between 16 and 45 years old. "However, almost two thirds of the visitors (63%) are younger than 35," Ergen stated.
The Turkish group is not eyeing the provinces. "For the moment, we are only looking at Bucharest. We aim to maintain our market position," Ergen concluded. Bucharest Mall accounted for a $35m investment and was dedicated on September 10, 1999. Back then, Turkish groups Bayindir and FIBA held equal shares in the Mall.
In November 2000, Bayindir, faced with the financial problems of the Turkish-Romanian Bank (BTR), sold its share to FIBA, which is now the sole owner of the Bucharest Mall. This is only one of the Turkish group's plans for Bucharest, as it also operates in financial services - Finansbank and FinansLeasing and retail - the Gima chain of supermarkets.
Bucharest Mall spreads on 50,000 square metres, structured on four levels, each of over 10,000 square metres. The rent ranges between 15 and 150 dollars/sq metre/month, depending on the size and location. In 1999, the occupancy rate of Bucharest Mall amounted to 70-75%, only to soar to 98% shortly. The occupancy rate has now reached 99%. |
