Britain's Willbrook Management real estate developer, which had earmarked 2bn-euro investments for the Romanian market, says Romania is now a closed subject as regards investments because of frustration accumulated after Cathedral Plaza office project of Bucharest was blocked.
The British firm will carry on investments only in the five projects it is already developing, with a total value of above 300m euros, with the rest of them to be frozen though plots of land have already been acquired for them.
"The Romanian market is a closed subject for us in terms of investments. We have five projects under development, including Cathedral Plaza, which we'll continue. The total value of the investments in progress tops 300m euros by 2010," Daiana Voicu, managing director with Willbrook Management, involved in the development of 25 projects domestically, told ZF.
The company's representatives did not say what would happen with the other 20 projects for which construction works have not been started, with the decision depending on the outcome of the trial in the case of Cathedral Plaza.
The five projects Willbrook Management is carrying out are Platinum Business and Convention Center, Oxford Gardens and Soho Residence, Cathedral Plaza and Tomis Mall.
"Overall, we have twenty-five projects planned, in Bucharest, Timisoara or Brasov (...), but we will not approach them with the same zeal as the other ones, because of frustration related to Cathedral Plaza and also because of the real estate crisis," Voicu explains.
The company also owns Teleferic hotel of Brasov, which it was due to turn into a five-star hotel. The company's representatives maintain they have enough resources to finalise started projects and that they prepared for the crisis starting as early as last year.
Amid the economic crisis, major companies will slash expenses and implicitly the sums earmarked for rents, so that the number of finished projects will fall and many of them will be just on paper. "Until 2010, I do not foresee any major project launches. Market movements are hard to project under the current conditions and we are worried about the fact that six months after the crisis reached the domestic market we are not seeing any solutions to overcome it," Voicu says.
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