Developer Globe Trade Centre (GTC) has acquired 75% of the shares in the company building a shopping mall in the city of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. The development is GTC's second investment of this type in Bulgaria, and is being carried out with the participation of a local partner holding the remaining shares in the venture. The value of the investment is EUR 42 mln, of which EUR 5.5 mln represents the cost of purchase of the 12,500 m[sup]2[/sup] site. The mall, scheduled to open in Spring 2009, will have a net lettable area of 23,000 m[sup]2[/sup] and will be the first modern shopping centre in Stara Zagora. The city is located between Sofia and the Black Sea coast, and has also been chosen by Heineken as the site of a new brewery it is constructing that will be Bulgaria’s largest.
Developer Globe Trade Centre (GTC) has acquired 75% of the shares in the company building a shopping mall in the city of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. The development is GTC's second investment of this type in Bulgaria, and is being carried out with the participation of a local partner holding the remaining shares in the venture. The value of the investment is EUR 42 mln, of which EUR 5.5 mln represents the cost of purchase of the 12,500 m2 site. The mall, scheduled to open in Spring 2009, will have a net lettable area of 23,000 m2 and will be the first modern shopping centre in Stara Zagora. The city is located between Sofia and the Black Sea coast, and has also been chosen by Heineken as the site of a new brewery it is constructing that will be Bulgaria’s largest.
GTC Bulgaria also acquired a majority stake in a company constructing a shopping mall in Varna in May of this year. The company is currently planning further investments in this sector in Bulgaria, which has one of the lowest levels of modern retail space per resident in the region. Analysts have predicted dynamic growth in Bulgaria’s commercial sector following it accession to the EU. GTC was established in Poland in 1994 and is one of the biggest developers in Central and Eastern Europe, with activities in Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Ukraine.