Romania's RED opens London office

RED Projects, the Romanian real estate developer, has opened an international office in London to source international development opportunities, investment finance, and retail and commercial tenants. RED, which has a EUR 600 mln retail property development portfolio in Romania, has appointed Andrew Hardy as managing partner at RED International in London.

Hardy has extensive international real estate experience. He was previously a partner of Healey & Baker in Amsterdam, and was responsible for Nike's outlet centre expansion in the Netherlands. He was also head of the retail property division for Jones Lang Wootton in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

RED's development programme in Romania encompasses shopping plazas, retail parks and neighbourhood centres. These include:Constanta World Trade Centre, a 123,000 m² complex including retail, offices, sports/concert arena and a hotel scheduled to open in 2010, and Baia Mare, Radius Plaza, a 60,000 m² development including a Carrefour supermarket, offices, hotel and arts centre due to open at end 2009. RED was also the developer of Arad, Armonia Retail Park, which is anchored by a Carrefour store and opened in June 2008. It also developing Satu Mare, Armonia Retail Park which is due to open at end 2009 and four neighbourhood centres under the Cadran brand name in Husi, Sebes, Marghita, Slobozia.

RED is a development company which invests in real estate projects in Southeastern Europe with a focus on Romania. Its main shareholders are US private equity fund Warbug Pincus and Spanish investment fund GED Group.