December 13 (SeeNews) - Dutch-registered emerging market property developer Plaza Centers said on Thursday it planned to invest over 500 million euro ($731 million) to develop retail projects and hotels in Serbia over the next two years.
For this purpose, the company plans to acquire two more locations alongside those in the capital Belgrade and in the central Serbian town of Kragujevac, Mordechay Zisser, Plaza Centers Executive Chairman, told reporters.
Some 100 million euro will be invested in the construction of a hotel, which will stand on 70,000 square metres on the site of the former Interior Ministry, Zisser said.
The building, damaged by NATO bombing in 1999, has been demolished and on this location in the next 12 to 18 months, a new hotel will be built, he added.
Plaza Centers said on Wednesday it has acquired a retail development project in Belgrade for 105 million euro, its third project in Serbia, where 40,000 square metres of shopping and entertainment facilities can be built.
In August, Plaza won a Serbian government tender to develop a 150-million euro shopping, entertainment and business centre in Belgrade with a total built-up area of 100,000 square metres in partnership with a Serbian developer, who will have a share of up to 15% in the project.
Last month Plaza announced it has agreed to buy a 24,000-square metre land plot in Kragujevac, central Serbia, where it plans to build a shopping and entertainment centre with a total built-up area of 35,000 square metres.
Besides Serbia, Plaza Centers (www.plazacenters.com), a subsidiary of Israel-based Elbit Medical Imaging, develops projects in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Romania, Greece and Bulgaria.
($= 0.684 euro)