Portuguese retail specialist Sonae Sierra has joined forces with Italian construction firm Impresa Pizzarotti & c. on a 50/50 basis to invest €200 mln in the development of a new shopping centre and retail park in Parma, northern Italy.
The project is situated to the north of Parma, near the city's trade fair centre, and will be build on a former industrial site which once housed an historical Italian kitchen’s factory.
The development, which is partly being financed by a pool of banks including UniCredit, Banca IMI and Banco BPM, will cover an area of around 300,000 m2 providing 74,000 m2 of overall gross lettable area across 170 units. It will consist of a shopping centre of 53,000 m2 and an adjacent retail park of around 21,000 m2, as well as over 5,100 parking spaces (including 1,600 in a multi-storey car park).
The scheme is over 30% pre-let at present and the opening is planned for autumn 2019. Sonae Sierra will provide the Property Management services.
Marco Pellizzari, managing director development of Sonae Sierra in Italy commented: 'This new development project is a further step in our company’s growth process in Italy over recent years; it is in line with the positioning and strategies of Sonae Sierra, which has set itself the objective of creating products suitable for the real estate investors’ market, with high quality projects in the most interesting geographies.'
