The future centre will have a gross actual area of 240 000 sq m, 14 000 of which will be allocated to the mall. It will encompass six levels, three of which will be underground parking lots and garages.France's Carrefour, the world's second largest retail giant, announced the launch of its first Bulgarian projects at a news conference held on November 5. Colliers International property consultants hold the exclusive agency rights of the project and Greece's TERNA will carry out the construction of the complex. The overall investment is estimated at 200 million euro. This is the largest mall project currently being developed on the Balkans. It is due to open in mid-2009.
The future centre will have a gross actual area of 240 000 sq m, 14 000 of which will be allocated to the mall. It will encompass six levels, three of which will be underground parking lots and garages. The ground and first floor will house retail outlets and the third level is planned as a zone for leisure and entertainment. The complex will shelter 200 retail outlets and its gross leasable are is calculated at 66 000 sq m. There will be office buildings adjacent to the establishment.
The company will open 20 hypermarkets in different Bulgarian towns in the upcoming five- to seven-year period. The first one will open in Bourgas at the close of 2008. The next compounds are projected in Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, and Rousse. The capital alone will have at least two outlets.
"Our goal is to introduce our know-how to Bulgaria, to create new jobs and establish long-term cooperation with a number of Bulgfarian suppliers," Jerome Loubere, general manager of Carrefour Marinopoulos, the Greek subsidiary of the French group, said in a media statement. He assured the public that work was progressing in line with the schedule.
Carrefour has signed agreements for the purchase of sites or the lease of retail space with six to seven companies, said Carrefour Bulgaria general manager Jean Anthonie. About 60 per cent of the leasable space of Carrefour Tsarigradsko Centre has already been let out, said Atanas Garov, managing director of Colliers International.
Garov mentioned that they were conducting negotiations with some of the leading Bulgarian brands, withholding further information on the tenants. He promised to release details when they achieved at least 80 per cent occupancy. Talk is that Carrefour has struck a deal with Inditex, the Spanish retail group, whose portfolio includes brands like Zara, Bershka, and Massimo Dutti.
The units in the development will rent above the average country levels but, according to Colliers, taking into consideration the scale of the project, which is logical. The average retail rentals in Bulgaria vary between 16 and 25 euro/sq m; the price range in Sofia runs from 20 to 26 euro/sq m; and Carrefour tenants, leasing more than 1 000 sq m, will also pay about 20 to 26 euro/sq m. The rest will rent at 30 to 50 euro.
Sources from the local property market say that Carrefour has taken steps towards securing a lease in the Mall Bulgaria development currently under construction on Sofia's Bulgaria Boulevard.
Carrefour Tsarigradsko would generate an annual turnover of 20 to 50 million euro in 2009, in the French retailer's estimates. For comparison, the eight local hypermarkets of Metro Cash&Carry, the German chain of self-service wholesale warehouses, posted sales of over 700 million leva in 2006. The French giant realises more than 12 billion euro in sales revenue in the Balkan region alone. The front-runners in the area are Greece and Cyprus, where Carrefour is retail chain number one. Carrefour plans to inaugurate more than 30 commercial centres over the upcoming two years. (Source: expert.bg, Dnevnik)
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