Baneasa developers add luxury mall and triple entertainment area

The retail area in the Baneasa project will include a luxury retail area which is an addition to initial plans, along with an entertainment center triple the size initially announced, said Ali Ergun Ergen, retail development manager with Baneasa Developments.
Besides pursuing another mall project in Bucharest in the Obor area, Baneasa's developers are looking at five to six sites for future retail power centers around the country. So far, they have finalized the acquisition of two of the necessary sites, according to Ergen. Each will require EUR 19 million in investment, said the retail development manager.
Baneasa Developments, the company building the project in north Bucharest, will construct the 30,000-sqm entertainment area inside the Baneasa project with EUR 25 million, three times higher than the initially planned investment.
The company will also focus on building another mall in a downtown location, a neighborhood shopping center, with a size comparable to that of Baneasa Shopping City, Ergen said. Company representatives would not disclose the mall's location, nor say whether this project was the same as Bucur Obor mall. A consortium made up of Baneasa Investments, Practic, Comnord and Procema – companies controlled by businessmen Gabriel Popoviciu, Sorin Creteanu and Radu Dimofte, also involved in the Baneasa project – have been selected for a public-private partnership contract to build a mall on the premises of the current Obor Market.
The Baneasa project is currently suffering from the lack of proper connection to the city, but the second overpass in the area is expected to be completed this November. Two metro stations are expected in the area on the long term, Bogdan Macarie, commercial director with Baneasa Developments, told BR.
The traffic issues in the area should also be solved once the Baneasa project's own bypass, now under construction, and two other infrastructure developments are completed. One of the projects consists of lengthening a road under the second overpass in the area, while a second is an underground passage in the zone.

Corina Saceanu