Arena Mall shopping centre in Bacau, a reference for the retail market in the Moldova region, will enter into a comprehensive extension and modernization process that will result in a 60% increase of its leasable area and in the construction of a multi-storey car park.

There is room for online and conventional channel retail to continue co-existing side by side in the short to medium term in the CEE-6 markets, according to Colliers International. The solid further €71.5 billion expansion of retail sales out to 2022, 4.9% growth per annum overall, creates enough evolutionary room for multiple concepts to continue thriving. Conservative growth scenario sees e-commerce in CEE-6 expanding 8.8% per annum from a baseline of €13.1 billion to €20 billion.

Ikea intends to complete the construction of a €50 million retail park in Belgrade by the end of 2020, the company’s CEO for SEE, Stefan Vanoverbeke said.

Futureal Group signed a loan agreement for €150 million (roughly HUF 48 billion) with a consortium led by UniCredit acting as Bookrunner and Facility Agent. UniCredit and Erste Group will finance Buda's biggest shopping centre with equal parts, marking one of the largest shopping centre-related financings in Hungary over the past ten years. The construction of Etele Plaza, with a gross area of 137,000 square meters, is already underway.

Immofinanz has renounced its plans for the construction of a Stop Shop retail park in Braşov citing the lengthy process of obtaining a construction permit. The developer is considering selling the land.

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank provided a facility of €68 million to ECE. pbb acted as arranger and sole lender under the facility.

The first half of 2018 on the Polish shopping centres market belonged to the biggest agglomerations. Over 172,000 sqm of new space was delivered, which constitutes about 75% of domestic supply. At the same time, the demand for retail space was still very high and the level of vacant buildings remained very low.

Ikea will open a new pop-up store on Wenceslas Square in Prague’s heart on 20 September. The 800 sqm shop will focus on showing customers a range of options they have for their living rooms.

The record-breaking era of the Polish retail sector is over now. The market is shaped by limited supply, increased competition, the growth of e-commerce and the aftereffects of the ban on Sunday trading. As pointed out by experts at BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland, in H1 2018 developers operating on the Polish market completed and delivered approx. 191 000 sqm of modern retail space, out of which 110 000 sqm appeared on the market between April and June. As expected, further 300 000 sqm of new supply will be delivered by the end of the year.

The rate of shopping centre development in Europe is slowing, with completions down 23% year-on-year at 3.8 million sqm 2017, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest European Shopping Centres report.