Stirixis: Bucharest's Lipscani area, less attractive in three years if retail mix not controlled

The old part of Bucharest, the downtown Lipscani area, which has been flourishing in the last years, after welcoming new restaurants and bars, has only a limited time frame to enjoy a good situation given the current mix of businesses there. The Lipscani area, currently filled almost exclusively with entertainment, food and bar units, could soon loose its attractiveness, Alexander Athanassoulas, CEO of Stirixis told Romania-insider.com. “I would say that if it continues to be centered only on entertainment, it would do very well for three or four years and then it will lose its attractiveness. It has happened before in many places. Greece, for example, has areas that have evolved around entertainment but only have had a very big boom,” according to Athanassoulas. The area would need other types of businesses in order to keep people there a longer period of time, and to have them coming back not only during the months of summer. Office buildings, more stores, more hotels would need to be opened in the area to provide a sustainable business cycle on the long term. Unfortunately, this type of centralized planning is harder to achieve in high street retail than it is in a shopping mall, Athanassoulas explains.

While the Bucharest City Hall can do as much changing the use of some public buildings and providing infrastructure for more types of businesses, a solution lays in the hands of business owners themselves. “It has happened in other areas though the retailers' association. The local associations managed to control the mix, working together with the local government. The business owners in Lipscani could form an association and this way have a controlled development in the area, with the help of the local authorities,” Alexander Athanassoulas goes on. Such an initiative should not be impossible in Bucharest, as the building ownership in the Lipscani area has become more concentrated, with several business people holding more spaces there, according to the Stirixis representative. This is one of the major problems of high street retail, but if it overcomes this hurdle, the Lipscani area has much room for growth, as it is helped by the fact that it is a pedestrian area, which triggers a positive evolution of retail businesses there. Greek company Stirixis, which has recently opened an office in Bucharest, provides concepts, construction management optimization and project management for retailers, food and beverage businesses and the hospitality industry. Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com