CEE-focused retail investor-developer Nepi Rockcastle has expanded its development and refurbishment pipeline for 2024 to just over €650 mln across the region.
The company said robust economic growth and rising household consumption in CEE is outpacing that of Western European countries, driving consumer demand and attracting international retailers to its shopping centres.
Nepi Rockcastle has 168,800 m2 of development and refurbishment projects underway, or planned this year in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
Rüdiger Dany, NEPI Rockcastle CEO, said: ‘Nepi Rockcastle is carefully calibrating its development pipeline and financing to match the strong demand for space we’re seeing from international and local retailers in CEE, as well as from other sectors such as entertainment and hospitality.’
He noted that the CEE region is under-supplied for retail space in comparison with Western Europe, but that economies in CEE countries are growing at twice the rate.
‘When these factors are combined with the central economic and social role our dominant shopping centres play in their markets, which is much more significant than in the rest of the EU, the megatrends and corporate strategy driving NEPI’s record financial results last year and our ambitious development and refurbishment programme, alongside the large acquisitions we made at the end of 2022, become very clear. We expect the current development pipeline to become accretive to earnings from 2027,’ Dany said.
The development and refurbishment projects underway, or planned this year, include Promenada Mall Extension in Bucharest, Promenada Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Bonarka City Center Mall in Krakow, Poland, Galati in Romania, and Arena Mall in Budapest.
