Lucian Azoitei, Founder & CEO, Forty Management: With Central District Lagoon City, we are transforming an old industrial area into a vibrant mixed green oasis

In an exclusive interview with Business Review, Lucian Azoitei, the Founder & CEO of Forty Management, has delved into the intricate details of the Lagoon City green urban reconversion project and the Radisson Lagoon Hotel, emphasizing their unique aspects and significant impacts. With a reputation for excellence and a portfolio that speaks volumes of his dedication to transformative development, Lucian brings a unique perspective to the table, shedding light on the future of urban living, the role of sustainability in real estate, and the strategies that have propelled Forty Management to the forefront of the industry.

Can you tell us more about the concept of Lagoon City green urban reconversion? How about the Radisson Lagoon Hotel?

A green urban reconversion project involves the transformation of an abandoned or degraded urban space and building a community around it. In the case of Central District Lagoon City for instance, we are transforming an 80+ year-old and socially deserted industrial area, a completely concrete and blighted land, into a vibrant mixed green oasis for a community and add numerous other facilities so that it becomes a small city within a large city, with all the necessary amenities for the urban living, which has a major impact both financially, for the central and local administration and at individual level.

What makes the Bucharest project unique is the fact that it will implement for the first time in Central Eastern Europe the patented Crystal Lagoons® technology, which allows the construction and maintenance of cost and energy-efficient artificial turquoise water lagoons of unlimited size. It will cover an area of over 10,000 sqm, have a maximum depth of 2 meters, three large beaches of more than 3,200 sqm and numerous other facilities. Located in central Bucharest (at No.18, Coralilor Street), Central District Lagoon City is the first mixed urban redevelopment project that will produce all its utilities in-house, thus capitalizing on Forty Management’s know-how and experience in sustainability.

Lagoon City brings around this artificial lagoon the Radisson Lagoon Hotel Bucharest, an upscale urban resort style hotel with 323 rooms, in addition to 401 apartments for rent, 9,200 sqm of commercial and service spaces, a class A, 8,500 sqm office building, as well as countless other facilities.

It’s truly remarkable and quite extraordinary that, in a city where summer heat can be overwhelming, we can create an oasis of calm and refreshment, bringing the sea right in the heart of Bucharest. And because we are doing an incredible thing – which many people still don’t believe is possible, even though we are working on it – it will attract many visitors; that’s why we decided to build a hotel even though the location is not a traditional one (the city centre). This concept of a large lagoon completely changes the way of development, and some locations that traditionally were not recommended for residential, office or leisure developments, become urban oases with a major impact on the urban development of the 21st century city.

Created in Romania, will the concept Radisson Lagoon Hotel be also developed together with the Lagoon City or it will be a stand-alone project?

Radisson Lagoon Hotel will be the hotel within Central District Lagoon City, so an integrated part of this amazing green urban reconversion. We are proud that our courage to innovate has led to the cooperation with Radisson Hotel Group, one of the largest hotel groups in the world, resulting in the creation of Radisson Lagoon Hotel Bucharest. We’re the ones who initiated this partnership here, in Romania, and it has the potential to be replicated around the world with other Radisson hotels built around the artificial Crystal Lagoon.

In which location is the forthcoming Lagoon City slated for development?

Lagoon City is the first project of this kind, here in Bucharest, that can be fully scalable – in other words, adaptable to any dimension of land, keeping the current mix and architectural part, just enlarging or shrinking the lagoon and adjacent buildings and changing the facades to adapt to the local architectural request. Therefore, we plan to scale it to Budapest, Prague and Warsaw in the next few years, depending on when we can identify the most suitable spaces for such a project. We have recently signed the master franchise and we will develop this concept in Milan, Rome, Sevilla, and Toulouse. Moreover, Budapest is the next location and the process is going very smoothly. We’ve identified a great piece of land there, on the Danube bank and it was simply amazing to see all the support we have received from the city hall and all the local authorities, who understood the dimension of this investment and all the opportunities that came with it for the city of Budapest – so we hope to start the works on the lagoon as soon as possible and complete it next autumn. In Prague and Warsaw are still looking for the best options to accommodate such a large-scale development.

How big was the investment for the Lagoon City and what is the economic impact of the project?

This is one of the biggest real estate urban reconversions in Romania this year, of more than 120 million euros and an opportunity for the Romanian economy, as it involves the creation of 840 jobs, significant taxes to be collected for the state budget, building communities and boosting tourism in the capital. Moreover, only the Radisson Lagoon Hotel alone will lead to the creation of 340 direct new jobs, in addition to 298 indirectly created jobs. Last but not least, we are talking about the urban revitalization of a concrete, industrially polluted, abandoned area and giving it back to the city.

The main problem in Bucharest lies in the fact that the Lagoon City project is frozen by the City Hall. After the current administration issued us the Urban Planning Certificate for the initiation of the PUZ, we have obtained all the required approvals – and we have been waiting for the issuance of the Opportunity Notice from the city hall for over a year. So why don’t really see why right here, in Bucharest, where we had planned open the first lagoon, the authorities are not communicating us their requests for such a large green urban reconversion project in order to move forward. This is a huge investment of more than 120 million euros, which also brings in 35 million euros in taxes and fees alone to the local and central authority in the first 5 years – an amount that can be further invested in the city’s development, buildings’ consolidation, parks, urban infrastructure.

However, we have not yet lost all our confidence and still hope that a solution will be found at some point to allow this fabulous project to continue as initially planned – and we do hope, as Romanians, that Budapest will not be the first to move forward instead of Bucharest.

What other projects do you have in development?

In addition to the Radisson Lagoon Hotel, the lagoon and the entire Lagoon City itself, we have chosen to capitalize on the potential of the luxury hotel market in Bucharest by bringing for the first time the Ascott hotel brand. The project will be initiated following the agreement we have concluded a few months ago with The Ascott Limited group, one of the world’s leading hospitality owners and operators with a presence in over 260 cities in more than 30 countries.

Based on this partnership, the hotel in Bucharest will be operated to the standards of luxury brand The Crest Collection. We plan to begin the construction early next year and estimate its opening in the first quarter of 2026. This project involves an investment of over €22 million.

The Central District Bucharest Hotel – The Crest Collection will have 170 rooms and a 360-degree restaurant on the 14th floor, where guests will be able to experience the life, culture and history of the capital in a unique luxury residence. Actually, the milestone for this hotel will be La Clef Champs-Élysées hotel in Paris, given its emphasis on luxury hotel services and fine-dining gastronomy, as we would like to give this place a touch of refinement, art and elegance.

On the other hand, we have started the acquisition and the urban planning documentation for the development of Lagoon City in Budapest, and together with our partners from Crystal Lagoon we have started discussions with the Municipality of Rome for the opening of a PAL (public access lagoon) in the centre of the racecourse in Rome, which is a huge piece of land, of over 6 ha, and which is unused. We have a lot of work to do, we are also looking for land for the development of LagoonCity or PAL in Warsaw, Prague, Seville, Milan and Toulouse.

The economic situation in Romania is uncertain, with a lot of fiscal unpredictability. Does it impact the development of new real estate projects?

The unpredictability of the economic context, in addition to an excessively dynamic political landscape and a tensed, complicated international geopolitical situation have generated a rather cautious approach from real estate investors and developers. If we also add the banks’ reluctance to grant financing, we do have a rather complete landscape of the main reasons any real estate projects have been postponed or even blocked.

It’s not the best time for development, but given our 20 years of experience in such a challenging market like Bucharest, we have tried to diversify risk, to invest for the long term to get through economic cycles – and to disrupt the market through innovative real estate. This is why we are actually both in Romania and across Europe, with the Lagoon City concept, planned in major cities in Western and Eastern Europe, in addition to the three hotels we are developing now. Our capabilities and experience in developing such high-calibre and amazing projects give us a lot of confidence in our future.

DMCA

PROTECTED