First store closure in Cotroceni Park. “Another five or six will follow”

Home Brands home décor and products retailer is the first tenant to close its store in the biggest mall opened in Bucharest just four months ago, Cotroceni Park, a project that includes around 250 stores overall. "We closed a store and in the following months we'll close another five or six stores. Changing 10-15% of tenants in the first year is normal. Some tenants have excellent sales, while others do not fare as well. We help them, but they also have to help themselves," Israel Visel, general manager of the mall, told ZF. Tenant shifts during a mall's first operational year are relatively normal. Thus, 18 months after Baneasa Shopping City mall was opened, around 25 stores were already closed. Cotroceni Park is among the malls with the biggest rents, with an average of around 30 euros/square metre/month, but in the first months sales were relatively good, so that in December the tenants had sales of 250 euros/square metre on average.