"I believe in the future of city-within-a-city developments".

Iulian Dascalu

In Romania he is known as the “King of the malls”. Starting from Iasi, Iulian Dascalu, founder and President of Iulius Group, established one of the most powerful development companies in the country, specializing in the segment of regional shopping centers.

Why did Iulius Group decide to focus on secondary cities? Is the larger availability of retail space on the Romanian market likely to bring a decrease in rents? Which are the latest trends in shopping centers development in Romania? In how many years will Romanian second-tier cities’ market become saturated in terms of retail product? When will saturation threshold in Bucharest be reached? Why is the Suceava project of strategic importance for Iulius Group? What was that prompted the decision to build Palas in Iasi and what issues is the project designed to settle? Will the company implement more multifunctional projects like Palas? How many shopping-malls is the city of Iasi able to accommodate? Are there real estate assets refinancing opportunities available on the Romanian market? Have talks with foreign companies willing to become investors in Iulius Group been entered? Is the company considering expansion abroad?

These are only a few of the questions Mr. Dascalu provides answers to in the present interview. I am optimistic about the future of “niche” shopping centers, specializing in answering the needs of particular groups of customers, he notes. He also outlines the driving forces of city-within-a-city and retail parks development in Romania, and shares his professional opinion of the correlation between residential and retail real estate in the country. Read!



This interveiw contains 3937 words.

The rest of this interview is for Property Xpress subscribers only.

You could sign in from the upper right corner.

Not subscriber yet? Start your subscription here.