GVA Outlets goes on Eastern European development spree

GVA Outlets announced the opening this week of the biggest outlet centre in Sofia, Bulgaria and said it has started development of a second site in Bucharest, while a number of other projects are in progress in Slovenia, Serbia and Russia.

'We currently have a range of projects in progress across Eastern Europe,' said Brendon O’Reilly, director of GVA Outlets, adding that the company is also developing in the Western European countries of Spain and Germany. 'We have over 20 potential projects in the pipeline which will come to fruition over the next five years and more requests coming in on a weekly basis.'

GVA's Sofia outlet centre represents a one-phase build with 15,500 m² of gross lettable area over four floors, including a food court and coffee shops with an underground car park of 520 spaces. The centre, which has a catchment of over 2.2 million within a 90-minute drive, is a building concept of Hamburg-based shopping centre specialist ECE, while the project developer was K & K Engineering. Drees & Sommer is the project manager and GVA Outlets is in charge of leasing and operational management.

'The outlet sector marketplace remains an attractive investment opportunity with plentiful future scope,' O'Reilly said. 'As we have now proved, every capital city in CEE has embraced a top-quality, international standard outlet center, and Sofia is no different'.