The Liberty Center shopping mall in the Rahova neighborhood in Bucharest is presently negotiating to lease 3,000 sqm, has announced Resolute LAR Romania, the company responsible for the project’s property and asset management. Signing this lease would hike the mall’s occupancy rate to over 85 percent.
Between August and December 2013, the mall reported a 20 percent increase in the number of visitors y-o-y. This year the company plans to continue investments in modernizing the center and marketing campaigns.
In August 2012, Liberty Center was bought in a public auction which started at EUR 60 million by Rosequeens Properties, a firm controlled by Rosequeens Properties Limited, registered in Cyprus. The administrator of the bidder was announced to be Ciprian Chiorean, legal manager at the Bank of Cyprus, one of the creditors.
The mall was previousyl owned by Irish family Mivan and the Awdi family and it was put up for sale for a debt of EUR 61 million. Its creditors were Eurobank EFG, Alpha Bank and Bank of Cyprus.
Liberty Center was opened in 2008 following a EUR 70 million investment. It has a total leasable are of some 25,000 sqm.
Simona Bazavan