With business forecast at 200-300 million euros a year, theCotroceni Park project could attract a significant part of theshoppers who are now going to Plaza, Militari Shopping or evenLiberty Center as of October 29.
The hypermarkets in the central and western area of the Capital,such as Carrefour Orhideea and Cora Lujerului, could see theirsales go down as a result of the opening of the Cotroceni Parkmall, which will also include a Real hypermarket open twenty fourhours a day.
"Under the current market circumstances, with a dwindlingpurchasing power and obvious reluctance on the part of the peopleto maintain consumer spending at the previous years' level, anyopening of a new shopping centre means first of all a distributionof the shopping budget among more players," says Bogdan Dancau,managing director of Atrium European Real Estate, the owner of theMilitari Shopping project in Bucharest.
Among the tenants renting space in both Militari Shopping andCotroceni Park are C&A and New Yorker apparel retailers, or theDeichmann and Humanic footwear stores, but the two projects are atleast five kilometres apart.
The main competitor for Cotroceni Park, however, will be PlazaRomania, located about one kilometre away on the TimisoaraBoulevard in western Bucharest.
"It is hard to estimate the impact of the opening of CotroceniPark. After five years in business we may say that Plaza Romania isa mature shopping centre, which has already taken its position onthe market. The store mix is different, and the latestmodifications will do nothing but consolidate this position," saysRadu Tanasescu, chief operating officer of Anchor Grup, the ownerof the Plaza Romania and Bucuresti Mall shopping centres.
Plaza opened in 2004 and was expanded this year; the storeassortment is quite different from Cotroceni Park's, so that loyalcustomers might come back to Plaza after having seen what CotroceniPark has to offer.
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