Sonae Sierra and Caelum Development resume the ParkLake Plaza mall project

Portuguese shopping center developer and owner Sonae Sierra and Irish developer Caelum Development have announced they have closed a 50:50 joint venture agreement for the development of the ParkLake Plaza shopping mall in the Titan neighborhood in Bucharest. The project will require a EUR 185 million investment.

This is the second joint venture agreement the two companies have reached to build the same project after the first one, signed in 2008, was canceled.

The now notorious ParkLake Plaza shopping mall was first announced in 2007 and was supposed to be the largest shopping mall in Bucharest at that time. Caelum Development had plans to invest EUR 500 million in the project which initially was supposed to have a gross leasable area of 110,000 sqm. One year later, the Irish developer reached the first joint venture agreement with Sonae Sierra but this was later canceled.

In 2011 Caelum Development announced it will resume the project and will invest EUR 250 million in the future shopping mall but works on the site did not advance much.

The latest announcement coming from the two companies is that the ParkLake Plaza will have a 67,000 sqm gross leasable area (GLA) and will require a EUR 185 million investment. However, the actual date when works on the site should begin was not announced.

“Currently, the joint venture is working on the design optimization, further leasing contracts to be signed with new brands, and focusing on obtaining the right financial solutions, which together will define the exact construction start timing,” reads the companies’ press release.

ParkLake Plaza will comprise 200 shops. Some 52 percent of its GLA has been already leased and another 13 percent is in “advanced negotiation” said the companies. Future tenants will include a Cora hypermarket (15,000 sqm), a Cinema City multiplex and fashion retailers like H&M, Mango, Zara, Oysho, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, Massimo Dutti and Bershka).