Dark alleyways, packed-out spaces with dead corners and a few stray visitors. This is the landscape in most Romanian shopping centres, which need a fundamental transformation to become truly attractive for city inhabitants, reads Business Construct magazine.
"Some Romanian businesspeople thought they were good at everything. In the case of malls, they did not really succeed," says a real estate consultant.
Romanian businesspeople are still the biggest owners of shopping centres domestically, most of them having businesses in other fields of activity.
"These investors would have to restructure at some point. The development of a shopping centre is a highly sophisticated process. (...) In recent years, demand for retail space has been very high, but only the good ones will survive," considers Arpad Torok, development manager with TriGranit Hungarian company.
Still, it was not only Romanian businesspeople that made a mistake in developing certain shopping centres. "We all erred when we overvalued inhabitants' purchasing power," stated RED Management Capital representatives at the moment they announced their decision to close Armonia Center project of Braila for a certain period.
Such situations will probably be not repeated in the following years. Developers, and banks and retailers in particular, will be more careful in researching the market before starting an investment.
The falling consumer spending was most acutely felt in small cities, where retailers have already started closing stores to boost operating efficiency.
However, several Romanian businesspeople have gained a lot from shopping centre development. Dan Adamescu also put up for sale Unirea Shopping Center in Brasov in March, but no significant deal has been signed on the shopping centre market for more than a year now.
After tapping Bucharest and large cities,
