The Romanian retail market will encounter a superior development level starting with September 2007, when the first power center will be opened. The concept, which achieved great popularity in other countries, is brought to Romania by the Romanian-German company Terra Invest.
Considering our past experience in countries which went through a similar developing stage, we have decided to open two retail centers. One of them is the so called power-center. This is a type of commercial complex which can be designed on locations ranging from 10.000 m² to 20.000 m² in all cities with more than 35.000 inhabitants. It is usually accompanied by a hypermarket or discounter groceries, and the tenants come from different domains says Klaus Reisenauer, general manager of Terra Invest.
The first investment of this specific type, Kaufland power center, will be built in district 3, on a 3,5 ha location which is the former location of a Gerovital cosmetic plant. The new center lies on Mihai Bravu boulevard which is one of the most important roads in Bucharest as most of the east-west traffic is concentrated here. The best illustration of the power center concept is that of the commercial park. It consists in finding a great located land within a district, where 6 or 7 renown retailers with complementary products are being brought, says Luiza Moraru, manager of the Retail Department of Eurisko, exclusive consultant on this project.
Another defining aspect of the concept is that it depicts a functional supermarket model between a supermarket and a mall. The fundamental difference from other retail centers is that here, all the buildings are being let for longer periods of time, without having the possibility of buying them. What must be underlined is that the power center targets a relatively limited public, the neighbor districts inhabitants states Luiza Moraru.
Kaufland Power Center will be built in single-floored halls, with areas varying from 100 to 3000 m². The buildings will cover a total of 14.000 m². Kaufland discounter will be the main anchor of this complex. Its shop will cover 6.000 m² to which will be added a 3.000 m² home appliances shop, an interior design shop and some outlets for the clothes and shoes collections. Given the flexibility of the concept, the spaces are being rented at different stages of finishing, depending on the plans and the clients demands. 300 parking places will be provided for the clients that go shopping by their personal cars.
As advisers on this project, we wanted to bring a new product on the market, which distinguishes itself in the actual Romanian retail context. Considering the fact that we target the main districts around Kaufland Power Center, we ground our decisions on the curiosity of the 390.000 inhabitants and we are sure that most of them will become our customers, states Luiza Moraru.
Terra Invest owns a plan which comes to continue the idea of this type of investment, and, as Klaus Reisenhauer says, 50 locations have been acquired in cities with over 50.000 inhabitants. The acquired experience tells us that 3 important criteria are needed in building a commercial center, no matter the type. They are the location, the location and again the location! It can never be expressed just how important the location is for a retail center, and, for this reason, all of our complexes are situated in the city centre in order to be accessible both to the pedestrians as well as those driving their own cars. We dont consider the locations lying outside the city, as we are following the general trend in Romania by which the clients go shopping in a center says Klaus Reisenhauer.
Besides the location, a very important aspect is the architectonical and functional aspect which must be very well developed and conceived. Regarding the tenants mix, the developer intends to attract international renown concerns and regional retailers which are already well known and have existing customers. Terra Invest has accumulated a 2 decades experience on the markets i
