Dawnay Day plans EUR 900 mln in projects, first three underway in Romania

These projects will be followed by five to seven other developments for which the company is currently negotiating to buy plots, said Adina Calinescu, country manager with Atrium Centers. Dawnay Day is planning to put between EUR 50 and 70 million into plots for future projects. The new projects will increase the developer's portfolio in Romania to nine projects in the next three years.
The company will target cities with over 70,000 inhabitants for its future developments, first focusing on cities in the western part of the country, said Calinescu. Romania is the first country in which Dawnay Day, through Dawnay Day PanTerra, one of the companies in the group, has set up Atrium Centers, but it plans to expand to neighboring countries in the near future.
The future Atrium Center malls in Romania will be similar in size and value to those already announced, requiring investments between EUR 50 and 100 million, said Michael Israeli, managing director with Atrium Centers.
For the EUR 85 million mixed project in Cluj-Napoca, Dawnay Day has purchased the former Somesul factory, which will be demolished in two weeks, said Israeli. The project will feature some 31,000 sqm of shopping area, a 10,000-sqm office area and a 150-room four-star hotel. The company is currently in negotiations for a hotel operator, which will be one of the international chains already present on the market. Although Dawnay Day owns and manages its own four-star hotel chain in Europe, it doesn't plan to run the future hotel in Romania. The Cluj project will be completed at the beginning of 2009.
The mall in Arad, some 68,000 sqm of built area, of which 27,000 sqm is lettable space, will require a EUR 50 million investment, and should be completed in the second half of 2008.
The third development, located in Baia Mare, for which the company has only recently acquired a six-hectare plot downtown, will have 40,000 sqm of lettable shopping area. Construction works for this project will start in November this year, with a deadline at the beginning of 2009. This third mall will need another EUR 50 million in investment.
The British group develops real estate projects in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, India, Germany and the Baltic states, besides Romania. It entered the local market by acquiring Macromall shopping mall in Brasov last year. Dawnay day PanTerra, the major shareholder in Atrium Centers, is in charge of real estate acquisitions and the assets portfolio administration for the entire group.

Corina Saceanu