Italian property investment company Immobiliare Grande Distribuzione (IGD) Siiq has announced that its Romanian retail unit Winmarkt has signed a new lease agreement with French supermarket giant Carrefour regarding the opening of a new supermarket in Winmarkt's Grand Centre mall in Ploiesti, Romania by the end of 2009.
Italian property investment company Immobiliare Grande Distribuzione (IGD) Siiq has announced that its Romanian retail unit Winmarkt has signed a new lease agreement with French supermarket giant Carrefour regarding the opening of a new supermarket in Winmarkt's Grand Centre mall in Ploiesti, Romania by the end of 2009.
The contract broadens the scope of the partnership signed last March which ensured the presence of Carrefour's line of food products in the three Winmarkt shopping centres located in Turda, Bistrata and Cluj, IGD said in a statement.
The new Carrefour market will occupy 1,215 m2 of space on the ground floor of the 25,000 m2 Winmarkt Grand Centre.
'The experience with the Carrefour supermarkets already opened in our shopping centres in Romania has shown us how the inclusion of food products improves consumer appeal and the centre's traffic,' said CEO Claudio Albertini. He added: 'We will, therefore, continue to implement our strategy for the 15 Winmarkt centers that we own in Romania.'
Based in Bologna, IGD has a portfolio worth some EUR 1.5 bn and is the only real estate investment trust in the Italian property market at present. Last year the company acquired Romania's Winmarkt Magazine which owns 15 shopping centres and an office building in the country for EUR 182 mln.
