Insolvent shopping center in Romania shows recovery by signing three new anchor tenants

Hello Shopping Park in Bacau, one of the local shopping centers developed by Belgian group Belrom in Romania before the economic crisis, signed in three new anchor tenants and will increase its occupancy rate to 88%, the company’s representatives have announced. Danish furniture and home decorations retailer JYSK will open a 1,000-sqm store in the retail park, in November, together with new clothing store San Francisco Outlet and decorations store Stock House, which will together cover an area of 3,500 sqm. The shopping center shows signs of recovery, after having lost some of its tenants in recent years due to the crisis. Hello Shopping Park covers an area of 105,000 sqm, and has a shopping area of 45,000 sqm of which 13,000 sqm are occupied by retailer Auchan. Some of its other tenants are do-it-yourself retailer BauMax, carpet store Proges, furniture retailer Elvila, electro-IT retailer Altex and fashion retailer C&A. It also has 1,400 parking places. The shopping center attracts 3.8 million visitors annually. It is currently managed by Resolute Lar Romania, a firm specialized in the management of real estate distressed assets. Hello Shopping Park was inaugurated in 2008, after a EUR 60 million investment, and went into insolvency in July 2013, as it couldn’t repay its loans. Bel Rom Cinci, the firm which owns the shopping center, had a turnover of EUR 3.56 million and losses of EUR 1.1 million, in 2013. The company’s total debt stood at EUR 47 million at the end of 2013, according to official data from the Finance Ministry. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com