Erste plans 40m-euro project in Jilava

Sparkassen Immobilien, the real estate arm of the Austrian-based Erste group, which announced investments worth 500m euros on the domestic market, intends to develop a 45,000-sqm commercial project in the locality of Jilava, in the southern area of the capital city, with investments worth at least 40m euros. "The total value of investments has not been confirmed, but ranges between 40 and 70m euros," Rudolf Schmid, a company official, told ZF. Earlier this year, Sparkassen Immobilien purchased a 97,000-sqm piece of land in Jilava, for 7.4m euros. This is the second commercial project in Bucharest that the company is involved in. In addition, Sparkassen Immobilien holds 50% of the Sun Plaza project developed in partnership with EMCT, which is located in southern Bucharest. Spa rkassen representatives chose not to provide further information concerning the future tenants of the commercial centre at Jilava, explaining that more information would be released when the project was presented. Sun Plaza is the company's most important domestic project and involves investments worth around 150m euros. The Erste financial group, the main shareholder in BCR, the largest Romanian bank, last year brought its real estate division onto the domestic market with one of its first moves being the takeover of the Novotel hotel located downtown Bucharest, in a deal worth 30m euros. Sparkassen is also active on the office space market and has 2 projects under development on Calea Grivitei, Bucharest, with a total lettable area of approximately 20,000 square metres.