AFI Cotroceni After 11 Months: Sales Of EUR158M, 22% Higher On Year

12.23.2011 By Cristi Moga

AFI Palace Cotroceni shopping mall in Bucharest, controlled by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, had sales of around EUR158 million in the first 11 months of the year, a 22% increase year on year, with sales to potentially exceed EUR180 for the full year.

Representatives of the mall provided ZF with the sales performance broken down for each of the 26 months since the project became operational and the weakest month this year was February, with EUR12 million in sales, while October was the best month, with EUR17.2 million sales. In December the mall is expected to exceed EUR20 million in sales.

"Since the opening, over 70 stores left the mall, but I can say the project is now balanced," says Israel Visel, manager of the shopping mall, with tenants including Real, C&A, H&M, Inditex, and Cinema City.

The project cost EUR300 million and cumulated sales in the first two years of functioning amount to around EUR350 million, with owners collecting rent of around EUR50 million.

(English version by Daniela Stoican)