AFI Palace Cotroceni gets EUR 220 mln refinancing; will introduce paid parking

Newsroom 27/03/2014 | 12:39

Deutsche Pfandriefbank, Raiffeisen Bank International, Raiffeisen Bank Romania and Erste Group Bank AG will lend EUR220 million to help refinance debt obligations of AFI Europe’s shopping mall AFI Palace Cotroceni in Bucharest valued at about EUR 375 million, according to zf.ro.

The mall’s development on a rented surface of 80,000 sqm was financed in 2008 with EUR 234 million from Hypo Real Estate. To refinance the credit, AFI has convinced Erste Group, Raiffeisen Bank International and Raiffeisen Bnak Romania to join Pfandriefbank in a consortium, and the final contract will be signed in the following weeks.

“We are in talks with Cotroceni Park’s representatives and we are interested to intensify our collaboration with them” according to Erste.

Afi Cotroceni is valued at EUR 375 million and a had an operational income of EUR 28.7 million last year.

AFI Cotroceni is testing a system for paid parking

AFI Europe will soon introduce a parking fee for the facilities in Afi Palace Cotroceni. At the time, the company is testing the system, barriers have been installed at the parking lot’s entrance and exit. The visitors receive a ticket which is validated when they leave the parking lot, but for now the ticket is free, according to economica.net.

The company’s representatives announced in January their intentions to implement a tax for parking to discourage the driver that use AFI Cotroceni’s parking space without visiting the mall. At the same time, the mall officials admit that 2,500 parking spaces are not enough and they plan to add 400 spots.