Following the sale of its first project in Romania, the Militari Shopping Center, for 20 million euros before completion, Belgian developer Liebrecht & wooD has decided to raise the stakes by setting its sights on an office building, a logistics park and a 250,000 square metre real estate project across the road from Carrefour Militari.
"All our projects are valued at 25 to 35 million euros. The same goes for the office building whose total surface area will be 20,000 sqm," said Johan Rogiers, managing director of the local branch of Liebrecht & wooD and a company shareholder.
He declined to reveal the exact location of the new real estate project, saying only that it was close to "Bucharest's business district" - placing it in the north of the city in the Piata Victoriei or Piata Charles de Gaulle area.
The Belgians are by no means newcomers to the market, given their ten-year experience of the Polish market, and they do not intend to stop with the Militari Shopping Center.
They have owned a 250,000 square metre plot of land on the other side of the road from the Carrefour Militari shopping complex for several years. "We are yet to make a decision as to what type of project we'll develop on this land," Rogiers said.
While considering its options, the Belgian company is in the meantime working on a logistics project close to the ring road in the Chitila area.
"Bucharest Logistic Center is currently being negotiated with clients. I believe works for this project will begin by the end of the year or early next year," Rogiers explained.
Not wanting to stop there, Liebrecht & wooD is also considering trying its hand at a shopping complex.
"We have the advantage of being a rather early comer on this market. I believe we could already have 5 or 6 real estate projects in Bucharest by 2010," Rogiers said.
Expansion outside Bucharest to other cities of the country is not being considered for the time being. "Bucharest still has a lot of potential for real estate projects in all areas, even residential. Bucharest's real estate market won't be saturated for a long time," Rogiers said.
Since 2000, Liebrecht & wooD has been the owner of land in Bucharest with an estimated value of between 10 and 12 million euros.
Liebrecht & wooD Romania's has three Belgian shareholders: Patrick Van den Bossche, Marc Lebbe and Johan Rogiers, who is also managing director.
Their strategy entails developing projects in various segments of the real estate market and then selling them to institutional investors upon completion.
"The Militari Shopping Center project was an exception. We thought we'd sell it, but not until after completing it. In the end we got a good price and decided to sell," Rogiers explained. The project was sold to Austria's Meinl European Land Limited for around 20 million euros, and the business has an annual yield of 11%. ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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