Zara, one of the major fashion brands on the domestic market will enter a street front location for the first time in Romania, occupying the former Media Galaxy electronics and home appliances store on the ground floor of the Unirea store in Bucharest. The investment in the opening of this store revolves around 10 million euros, says Retail Group, a real estate consultant.
Spanish group Inditex, which entered the Romanian market with seven of its own brands directly last year, has decided to create the first Zara in a street front location that would be representative of the brand in terms of image and surface area. "Zara needed a very large surface area, which is why talks were started for this store that takes up 6,000 square metres. The retail area will stand at no more than 3,000 square metres and the rest will be used for offices and logistics. The investments in arranging the space amount to 2,000 euros/square metre," Ilan Laufer, general manager of Retail Group, a company that also handles sale and marketing for the Cocor Luxury Store project, told ZF. The lease for the space in Unirea Shopping Center was signed by the officials of Inditex and Adamescu family, the owner of the shopping complex last week, following two months of talks. While the two parties were making progress, Dan Ostahie, the manager of the Altex Group, announced he would drop Media Galaxy Unirii, the biggest and most representative store of the network, inaugurated two and a half years ago. Moreover, he told Ziarul Financiar in an interview that he did not know who would take up the space, but thought it was a textile retailer. Inditex had previously made attempts to enter the shopping complex in the centre of Bucharest a few years ago, when Zara was present through a franchise acquired by the Azadea Group, but talks did not end in collaboration because of the rent and space Zara requested. The new Zara will most likely open this summer, after being decorated with special finishes and furniture and after getting a completely new fa'ade.
