French retailer Auchan will invest EUR 60 million in developing the first phase of the Coresi real estate project in Brasov, on the Tractorul platform it recently acquired from Flavus Investiţii.

Auchan's real estate arm Immochan will carry on work on the project, which is set to finalize in 2013. The EUR 60 million investment does not include the price of land, some 100 hectares.

Auchan will first work on a 24 hectares plot, where it will build an Auchan store on some 16,000 sqm, a shopping mall on some 25,000 sqm, and a 300-place car parking.

Originally launched in 2010, the project’s first stage, which included an Auchan store, was due for finalization in 2011. However, construction work never started.

Flavus Investitii, owned by Cheynee Capital, bought the land of the former factory Tractorul in 2007, for some EUR 77 million plus VAT. The buyers wanted to develop an urban regeneration scheme on the plot, with an aim to invest some EUR 1.5 billion in offices, housing and a shopping center.

Immochan, the real estate arm of retailer Auchan, will develop two projects in Bucharest by 2013, after recently opening an official subsidiary in Romania. The first Auchan City hypermarket, on some 5,000 sqm, will open in the Giulesti area of Bucharest, along with a 2,000 sqm commercial gallery. A second project is planned for the Ghencea neighborhood, a shopping gallery with 100 stores and a 11,200 sqm Auchan hypermarket on the premises of the former Tricodava factory. The two projects will add to the two existing Auchan stores in Bucharest.

editor@romania-insider.com