Hungarian property company Trigranit said it is resuming construction of its Romanian shopping centre project, Polus Center Constanta, after halting the development at the end of 2008 due to the credit crunch. The CEE real estate builder, which slashed its development pipeline in half last year, will invest around EUR 140 mln in the development of the 50,000 m[sup]2[/sup] commercial centre. The scheme will offer 170 shops, café, bars, restaurants and an eight-screen multiplex cinema.

Hungarian property company Trigranit said it is resuming construction of its Romanian shopping centre project, Polus Center Constanta, after halting the development at the end of 2008 due to the credit crunch. The CEE real estate builder, which slashed its development pipeline in half last year, will invest around EUR 140 mln in the development of the 50,000 m2 commercial centre. The scheme will offer 170 shops, café, bars, restaurants and an eight-screen multiplex cinema.

Trigranit expects the project to open its doors in the second half of 2010. Polus Center Constanta has already been leased for a considerable part, the company said, with French hypermarket chain Auchan being one of the anchor tenants, occupying 16,000 m2 in the scheme.

The announcement is the latest positive development for the Budapest-based company. During the summer Trigranit secured the largest property loan in CEE since the beginning of the credit crunch when it received a EUR 150 mln financing for the construction of the Arena Zagreb from in July for a consortium of banks.

The banks contributing to the financing were Intesa Sanpaolo, Erste Group, Hypo Investment Bank, Cassa di Risparmio della Repubblica di San Marino, MKB Bank and CIB Bank.