Amstar has sold Aura Shopping Center in Novosibirsk, the third largest city in Russia, to RosEuro Development. Sources close to the transaction have identified the sale as the largest ever retail real estate transaction in Russia outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, the specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Aura Shopping Center was developed by Amstar in partnership with Renaissance Development and opened in 2011. The center comprises more than 200 stores and 61,000 m² of leasable area over four floors. Located within a five-minute walk of Lenin Square and the city’s main street, Krasniy Prospect, Aura is the premier shopping center in Novosibirsk and is 100% leased.
The shopping center is anchored by Okey Hypermarket and MediaMarkt and includes a diverse mix of some of Russia’s most popular retailers including Zara and other Inditex brands, Sportmaster, Adidas and New Yorker. Amstar continues to maintain a strong partnership with Renaissance. The joint venture owns five shopping centers in Turkey, four of which are operational with the fifth scheduled to open in October 2013.
“The sale of Aura marks the culmination of a successful project for Amstar and its investors and is an opportunity for RosEuro to add a stabilized, award-winning project to its growing portfolio of Russian regional malls,” said Jason Lucas, President of Amstar Global Advisers. In 2012, Aura was awarded the 2012 'Gold Brick' Award for Russia’s 'Best Large Regional Shopping Centre' by Commercial Real Estate Russia at the CRE Federal Awards in St. Petersburg.
The CRE 'Gold Brick' Award is commonly viewed as the most prestigious award in Russian commercial real estate. Lucas added, “This sale demonstrates both the success of Amstar’s global strategy and the strength of our long-standing partnership with Renaissance. We remain confident in the Russian real estate market and will continue to seek out opportunities for commercial real estate development.”
The shopping center will be the second operational shopping center in RosEuro Development’s portfolio of Russian shopping centers. RosEuro owns and operates Planeta Shopping Center, Krasnoyarsk and is developing three additional Planeta shopping centers in Ufa, Novokuznetsk and Perm.
Source: Amstar
