After a construction time of 18 months, Árkád 2 in Budapest has opened today. The new shopping center supplements on three floors the already existing Árkád 1 by around 20,000 m² leasable area and numerous new shops – among them Interspar, Van Graaf, New Yorker, Hervis, Deichmann, and the Apple Premium Reseller “iStyle”.
With an overall leasable area of 68,000 m², both centers together form the largest shopping location in Hungary. Together they will provide space for around 200 specialist stores, cafés, gastronomy and service outlets.
“The visitors can look forward to a new point of attraction in the capital. The good location as well as the attractive branch and ten-ant mixture will make Árkád 1 and 2 to the most popular shopping location in Budapest,” says ECE CEO Alexander Otto.
“In 2002, we decided chose the Árkád shopping center in Budapest for the first edition of our Fund, which invested in Eastern Europe. We are still convinced that investments in shopping centers in very good locations and with a professional center management are two very reasonable and profitable for German investors,” explained Hermann Wüstefeld, Head of Closed-End Fund Production & Management, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management.
The investors of Árkád 2 are ECE / the Otto family and a DWS closed-end real estate fund. The investment volume for the shop-ping center amounts to a total of around 80 million euros. With the opening of Árkád 2, around 300 new jobs have been created. The long-term management and leasing of Árkád 1 and Árkád 2 remains in the hands of ECE. The company Épitö Zrt. had been commissioned as general contractor with the realization of the construction.
Also Árkád 1, which was opened in 2002, is to shine in new splendor: by September of this year, the shopping center is being modernized and will win approx. 50 new attractive shops, e.g. Adidas, Nordsee, City Spar, and CCC Shoes. Also the food court is being expanded. Some shops have already opened in the last months, such as Stradivarius, Nike and the first Lego monobrand store in Hungary. Furthermore, several tenants – among them H&M and Camel Active – used the center restructuring for an enlargement of the shop space.
The catchment area of Árkád 1 and Árkád 2 comprises more than 1.3 million people, who can easily reach the center by car or with public transportation. The centers are located in the Kõbánya dis-trict, borough X, in eastern Budapest at the busy junction Krepesi and Fehér út and have direct connection to a metro station. Furthermore, several bus stops, a streetcar station and a city train station are in direct vicinity of the centers. More than 1,600 parking spaces are available for the visitors.
The Managing Directors of ECE Hungary Gyula Gyalay-Korpos and Christoph Augustin thank the administration of the capital Buda-pest, the Kõbánya district and the authorities for the good cooperation during the realization of the project.
On the occasion of the opening of Árkád 2, ECE donates 3 million HUF (approx. €9,840) to the foundation of the elementary art school for music and performing arts “György Kroó” (musical edu-cation for the youth living in the Kõbánya district). The ceremony for the presentation of the check took place in the evening before the opening. The school focuses on the support of new talents, chamber music as well as the integration and education of disadvantaged pupils.
Source: ECE
