H&M adds Romania's Botosani on the map with spring store in upcoming shopping center

Swedish retailer H&M will open a 1,575 sqm store in Uvertura Mall, in Botosani, its first shop in the city in Northern Romania. The H&M unit will be on two floors in the shopping center and will open in spring 2013, according to DTZ, which brokered the lease. This will be H&M's 24th unit in Romania. “H&M’s presence in our shopping center sets solid grounds for our future development and supports us in our goal of positioning Uvertura Mall as the main retail destination in the city and one of most important shopping centers in the region,” said Danut Prisecariu, the owner of Uvertura Mall. Uvertura Mall, owned by the Romanian developer Moldova Universal SA, will have 15,000 sqm of Gross Leasable Area (GLA), and was 82 percent leased at the end of 2012. The shopping center is on schedule for the opening planned for the end of March 2013. The modern retail stock per thousand inhabitants in Botosani stood at 119 sqm in 2012, the lowest value in the region: five times below the Suceava County's average of 562 sqm, nearly three times below the Iasi and Bacau average of 339 sqm and half the average of Piatra Neamt, according to DTZ Research. H&M has been expanding rapidly throughout Romania, after its market entry in 2011. Moldova Universal developed the Moldova Mall in Iasi, three residential compounds in Iasi and one in Botosani. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: H&M)