Bistrita Retail Park will be inaugurated in May 2018, Element Development, the park’s announced. The list of tenants for the nearly 8,000 sqm retail park include, among others, Carrefour Market, JYSK, Decathlon and Top Shop.

A new Class A office building in downtown Budapest was inaugurated on this week. The building under Markó Street 9, originally used as an electrical transformer house, has now received a new identity. The 2,630 sqm floor area of the five-storey building – two of which come with a loft – is tailored primarily to meet requirements of creative workshops, start-up companies and other undertaking taking an up-to-date approach in general.

Mulberry Development, a real estate developer controlled by businessman Ovidiu Sandor, has announced the launch of the second phase for ISHO Offices, a mixed-use project in Timisoara.

Ikea plans to build its third store in Romania next to the city of Timisoara. The Swedish retailer has reportedly applied for a permit to build a roundabout that would allow access to the future store. Ikea also plans to open stores in Brasov and Cluj-Napoca.

Real estate developer Werk Property Group is planning to invest €14 million in Vox Vertical Village, a residential project in Timisoara. The development of the 120 housing units is scheduled to start soon with completion scheduled for the end of 2019.

NEPI Rockcastle has started construction works on a new shopping mall in Satu Mare. NEPI’s eighteenth shopping centre in Romania is expected to be inaugurated at the end of 2018.

Golub GetHouse has embarked on the construction of a student residence in Kraków. Unibep S.A. is the general contractor for the investment, which involves renovating the former Telpod factory and adapting it for the needs of modern, high-standard university accommodations. The industrial interiors will contain 290 functional housing units with various layouts – for one, two, three or four persons, offering a total of over 700 beds. Golub GetHouse is implementing the project in partnership with Chicago’s CA Ventures International, a company specializing in student housing construction in North and South America. The investment is financed from Golub GetHouse’s real estate fund.

Development is booming in almost all segments of the Romanian market, but developers still need to overcome a number of legal and regulatory challenges before they can start building. Then, once construction is complete, they must realise that tenants have become more aware and more “choosey”. Răzvan Gheorghiu-Testa, Partner at Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații and Head of the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group reviewed some of the issues that may arise when developing or leasing a new building in Romania.

S Immo has completed the upgrade of the Sun Plaza shopping centre in Bucharest and reopened all reconfigured areas to the public. The €30 million remodelling has added 11,000 sqm of new retail space to the shopping centre.

Strabag SE, through its Romanian subsidiary, has been awarded the contract to build a 110 m tall office tower in central Bucharest. The contract has a value of about €39 million. Completion is scheduled for October 2019.