Report on the first day in business for the biggest mall

"There's no place in this world where you can schedule 220 stores to open at the same time," says Reuven Havar, country manager of AFI Europe, the developer of the AFI Palace Cotroceni project. This is how he explained the fact that a number of stores and restaurants were not operational on the opening day of the biggest mall in Romania.

Near the entrance, one could still see mega containers with packaging, which belong to the tenants that brought their merchandise at the last minute, as well as a number of Asian workers finishing the tiling of a small pool that surrounds a huge sphere, at the entrance from Apaca, Politehnica. Most shopping centres inaugurated on the local market had their problems in the opening day, most of which were still being fixed.

Tenants like Leonardo, Benetton, Stone Creek and Alb si Negru were still arranging their stores, while in the central area where the food court is located only Nordsee and KFC were serving food, with the other choice being a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

"When you walk through the mall, however, you don't get the feeling that something is missing. From a shopper's standpoint, you don't realise there are only 220 stores instead of 250. This is really much, anyway. How many can you go to in one day?" wonders Havar, who is convinced that the mall will reach peak capacity over the coming weeks.

When he says that, he also means the leisure area, where people are still working on the biggest skating rink in a shopping centre, taking up 1,000 square metres or the electric train taking the shoppers' kids for a ride around the mall.

Havar is asking for a two-week "grace" period, until November 10, when he will organise a series of events on the occasion of the grand opening. Afterwards, the 3D cinema, one of the main attractions of the mall is scheduled for opening.

Yesterday afternoon, the shopping centre was brimming with people, both young and old; there were also many retail and shopping centre industry experts who had come to check out the complex, which has a target set at 50,000 visitors a day, more than Unirea shopping centre is currently boasting.

"Considering how it is now, with all the dust and work in progress inside, it hasn't convinced me yet, but I believe it will be a good project and I will come back, because it has very many stores," says 21-year old Stelian, who lives in Drumul Taberei and goes to Plaza Romania and Bucuresti Mall often.

The main attraction of the mall in its opening day was the Real hypermarket, which was the most heavily promoted of all stores and attracted many elderly people looking to do their usual shopping.

"It's nice, it's impressive but prices are for millionaires, not for us, pensioners. We came to look at the dome rather than everything else. It is good they are still building nice places for young people. I've been to other malls, too, to Carrefour, to Billa, but where is the food store here?" wondered Mrs. Ciupitu, holding another elderly lady by the arm, both of them looking somewhat lost on the hallways of the project.

Indeed, most of the bags held by shoppers bore the Real logo, while the line at the door to the Deichmann footwear store mainly consisted of people waiting to get a balloon with the German retailer's logo.

"We will operate the mall ourselves for a few years, to bring it to the best financial results possible. The loan we took to build the mall (234 million euros) is a long term loan, and considering the contracts we signed, we get a pretty good margin after we pay the instalment," Opher Linchevski, CEO of AFI Europe, controlled by Israeli businessman Lev Leviev told ZF.