A Romanian shopping center forced to close because of the crisis

The second largest shopping center in Braila (Romania) closed in August following investors’ decision to reposition the center due to low occupancy levels and meager attendance. There has been a total of 45 million euro invested in the Armoniya project, 30 million of which were loaned from a bank. The representatives of the company, whose shareholders are the investment funds of Warburg Pincus (USA) and GED (Spain), have informed the tenants and the bank about their decision to stop the project for the time being. As a result, the rental contracts as well as the installments to the bank will be suspended. Armoniya shopping center is made up of 37,000 sq m – a 14,000-sq m gallery and 23,000-sq m Carrefour hypermarket. Some of the other tenants include Flanco, Sephora, Samsonite and Mondex.