October 15 (SeeNews) - UK-based retail property investment fund Dawnay Day Carpathian (DDC) said on Monday it plans to develop a 68 million euro ($96.8 million) retail and entertainment complex in Baia Mare, northwestern Romania.
The company has already acquired a 58,900 square metres of land for 6.5 million euro on which it will develop a complex with 34,000 square metres of gross lettable area in a joint venture with an unnamed local company, DDC said in a statement. DDC officials were not immediately available to provide the name of the Romanian partner in the joint venture.
Construction works will start in September 2008 and the project will be completed within 23 months. Based on a capitalisation yield of seven percent, the estimated project value upon completion is 89 million euro.
“This investment will further underline our presence in the market and enable us to benefit from economies of scale with relation to the construction and development process,” DDC chairman Rupert Cottrell said in the statement.
The project is DDC's fourth investment in Romania. The company has acquired earlier a multi-purpose development site in the northwestern city of Cluj Napoca for 14.3 million euro and two land plots in the western city Arad for 11.8 million euro. Last year, it bought the MacroMall shopping centre in Brasov, central Romania for 19 million, its first acquisition in the southeastern European country.
DDC (www.dawnayday.com) was set up to invest in retail properties in central and eastern Europe. It has so far acquired malls in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Lithuania.
($ = 0.7023 euro)