Most shopping centre owners have offered discounts to clients inorder to keep them in the mall, help them get through this time ofweak sales, as well as to keep their own businesses afloat. How farhave some of the owners gone?
"I have heard of fabulous offers on the market, which includepaying no rent at all in the first year, support offered forsetting up the store and rent calculated as a percentage of theturnover starting in the second year of tenancy," says a realestate consultant commenting on the situation of shopping centreowners.
Recently, Dorin Catana, general manager of Centrofarm drugstorechain, told ZF there were mall owners who agreed that the chain notpay rent in the next few months just so it could be kept within themall. Octavian Radu, owner of the RTC group, managed to secure anup to 70% rent cut for some of his Diverta stores located inshopping centres. Dragos Petrescu, with a 15 million-euro businessin the restaurant sector, was uncompromising, saying he would nolonger open restaurants in shopping centres, not even for free.
The biggest cost cuts are made primarily by owners of shoppingcentres opened in the past year, which saw most retailers freezeexpansion, resulting in an unsatisfactory occupancy rate.
"We charge zero rent for a fixed period, with figures reviewedevery three months. On the ground floor, where the occupancy rateis 90%, rent cuts amount to 20-25%. The first-floor occupancy rateis of 33%," specified Mikael Harfi, manager of the Grand Arena mallin Bucharest, and son of one of the owners.
The project, located in southern Bucharest, was opened thisspring, with a significant share of the tenants that had signedrental contracts deciding not to open the stores after all, withthe occupancy degree cut from the very start.
"It has been six months since our opening. We cannot comparewith shopping centres that opened four or five years ago. We havestores with very good sales, footwear stores, for instance, andothers that don't sell much at all, which we blame on prices. Ourjob, as owners, is to bring as many people into the mall aspossible," Harfi explained.
As a result of lower interest from tenants, the number of newopenings made this year is down by more than 50% against lastyear.
Another mall opened this year is Galleria Piatra Neamt, wheresome of the tenants are not paying any rent for a specified periodof time.
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