Dust at the inauguration of Mega Mall

South African investment fund New Europe Property Investments (NEPI) yesterday chose to open the doors of Mega Mall in the National Arena area of Bucharest, among workers, scaffolds and dust, which is unusual for a project which wants to be seen as a regional benchmark and the retail center with the biggest surface in Romania. Initially announced for April 23rd, the opening of Mega Mall was postponed for May 14th, even though the mall was not ready on that date either. Visitors invaded the location, and those who preferred to eat at the food court on the second floor had to put up with the dust, noise and workers.

In mid-April, Sorin Scîntei, Project Manager at NEPI, was saying the following concerning the postponement of the inauguration of Mega Mall: "We have built our reputation through the quality of the projects that we deliver, and for which we do not want to make any compromise.

Ourselves, as well as our partners, we want for the people of Bucharest to step, for the first time, into a Mega Mall that matches expectations, as well as the human efforts and the significant financial investments which were involved in the development of this retail center. Precisely because we want to keep the NEPI highest quality standards, we have decided to set the initial opening date in mid-May. Both the design of the mall, as well as the concept of the stores inside are unique on the Romanian market. For the moment, elements that are unique in Romania are being finished down to the smallest detail, with their construction being very laborious, such as the ceiling that allows the passing of the natural light as well as the stores' glass windows, with a height of 14 meters. Every retail space ever has been delivered to our partners according to plan".

The exacting standards displayed by Sorin Scîntei were not visible yesterday, at Mega Mall, quite the contrary, NEPI showed that it has made many compromises, by seriously sacrificing its perception among customers.

The highest standards and the completion down to the tiniest details would have involved that yesterday, at Mega Mall not one speck of dust was there and everything was shining.

But the view on location was depressing: two steps away from the entrance there was an unpaved area, workers were at work on the construction, almost everywhere, and some stores were not yet laid out.

However, customers did come in to walk around, and even accepted to have their meals amid the dust in the areas that were still under construction.

When asked yesterday what he didn't wait for the works to be fully done to inaugurate the mall appropriately, Martin Slabbert, the CEO of NEPI, explained, in a press conference: "Mega Mall is the fund's biggest investment so far, of up to 165 million Euros. It covers 230,000 square meters, and has a leasable area of 72,000 square meters. On any project of such scale, there are delays in the delivery of the construction materials or in the execution. Anything can happen on the schedule set for such a project. We have decided to take the risk of inaugurating the mall on May 14th, taking into account the fact that the visitors would be safe and that we have commitments to the tenants, which we need to honor. I estimate that the mall will be fully ready within a month at the most, and at that time it will be perfect. The works began 15 months ago".

He skipped over this aspect casually, mentioning that NEPI has had that kind of risky bets before with other retail centers in the country, which subsequently yielded good results.

Martin Slabbert says that NEPI did not resort to bank loans for the construction of Mega Mall, but to the stock market.

According to data supplied by the South-African Investment Fund, 98% of that .surface has already been rented. Mega Mall hosts 200 stores and the latest concept of Carrefour hypermarket. NEPI claims that the mix of tenants is unique in Romania and will ensure the success of the project. The mall has a 14-room Cinema City, which also features the first room with 4D technology, as well as a World Class gym with a semi-Olympic swimming pool and a food-court of over 10,000 square meters.

Martin Slabbert also said yesterday, that Mega Mall will draw a number of visitors similar to Băneasa Shopping City and it estimates that net rental revenues will be somewhere between 17 and 18 million Euros in the first year of operation. He also mentioned that the price of the average monthly rent was 20 Euros/square meter.

When asked which commercial centers will be affected by Mega Mall, the head of NEPI mentioned the Vitan mall. When asked whether he expects Mega Mall to "steal" some of the customers of the Veranda project, developed by Prodplast Imobiliare in the Obor area, Martin Slabbert said that he did not even ask himself that question, because it is a small commercial project and such projects are risky.

This year, NEPI wants to complete the works on the commercial centers in Timişoara and Constanţa (ed. note: an extension of the acquired mall), as well as the office projects in Cluj and the Victoriei square of Bucharest.

NEPI's portfolio includes Mall Promenada, Vulcan Value Centre, CityPark Constanţa, Ploieşti Shopping City, Brăila Mall, Galaţi Shopping City, Shopping City Târgu Jiu and other commercial centers in Romania, as well as in Slovakia and Serbia. NEPI also owns the following office buildings: Floreasca Business Park, The LakeView of Bucharest, City Business Centre of Timişoara and The Office of Cluj.