Baneasa Investments, which is held by the University for Agricultural Sciences and Veterinarian Medicine of Bucharest together with a group of companies controlled by businessman Gabriel Popoviciu, officially launched a real estate project yesterday. If the project is realised, it will become the largest real estate deal on the Romanian market and one of the largest in the region.
With the investment estimated at 1.2bn euros over the next ten years, the project could generate an average annual turnover of 2bn euros, according to estimates by the developing company.
After being initiated in 2000, the Baneasa project has been the subject of much discussion, with the main issue at stake being the plot of over 220 hectares held by the University, the equivalent 1% of Bucharest''s surface area. The plot is strategically located in northern Bucharest, the most developed area of the capital.
The land has also attracted the attention of other local investors, such as businessman Gigi Becali, the owner of Steaua football club. However, his bid was judged to be "not serious", leading to the partnership with the group of companies controlled by Gabriel Popoviciu.
"You don''t partner with just anybody with such business ventures. The partnership was made with the son of one of our professors, Bogdan Popoviciu (...) We looked at the matter from an elementary level: could a son treat his father''s work with disrespect?" said the university rector, Ioan Alecu, in an interview this week. Gabriel Popoviciu also owns the Howard Johnson Hotel (formerly Dorobanti Hotel), where the press conference for the official launch of the project was held.
The University land in question was valued at around 1,000bn ROL (or 50 million euros at the average exchange rate given by the National Bank of Romania for 2000), in which the expertisation was conducted by 5 evaluators authorised by the National Association of Evaluators in Romania (ANEVAR), Baneasa Investments officials say.
"At that time, the land was not viable as it was being used for various crops," Baneasa Investments representatives explained.
The Baneasa project will be unrolled in several stages up to 2015 using a 224-hectare plot. It will feature offices (120,000 square metres), shopping complexes (mall, hypermarket, furniture store, DIY, and sports equipment stores etc. spread over 170,000 square metres) and 3,000 individual and collective homes and apartments in villas.
Of the total 224 hectares, the 30 hectares to be used for roads within the complex have been taken over by the mayor''s office for sector 1 through a donation paper, said Bucharest mayor Adriean Videanu.
According to representatives from Baneasa Investments, the financial resources will be contributed by the company and will also come from rent from office space and bank loans for which talks are now underway with a banking consortium.
Baneasa Investments representatives say the project has already received more than 20 million dollars in investment "from funds contributed by private shareholders in the Baneasa Investments company."
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