"There's no place in this world where you can schedule 220stores to open at the same time," says Reuven Havar, countrymanager of AFI Europe, the developer of the AFI Palace Cotroceniproject. This is how he explained the fact that a number of storesand restaurants were not operational on the opening day of thebiggest mall in Romania.
Near the entrance, one could still see mega containers withpackaging, which belong to the tenants that brought theirmerchandise at the last minute, as well as a number of Asianworkers finishing the tiling of a small pool that surrounds a hugesphere, at the entrance from Apaca, Politehnica. Most shoppingcentres inaugurated on the local market had their problems in theopening day, most of which were still being fixed.
Tenants like Leonardo, Benetton, Stone Creek and Alb si Negruwere still arranging their stores, while in the central area wherethe food court is located only Nordsee and KFC were serving food,with the other choice being a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
"When you walk through the mall, however, you don't get thefeeling that something is missing. From a shopper's standpoint, youdon't realise there are only 220 stores instead of 250. This isreally much, anyway. How many can you go to in one day?" wondersHavar, who is convinced that the mall will reach peak capacity overthe coming weeks.
When he says that, he also means the leisure area, where peopleare still working on the biggest skating rink in a shopping centre,taking up 1,000 square metres or the electric train taking theshoppers' kids for a ride around the mall.
Havar is asking for a two-week "grace" period, until November10, when he will organise a series of events on the occasion of thegrand opening. Afterwards, the 3D cinema, one of the mainattractions of the mall is scheduled for opening.
Yesterday afternoon, the shopping centre was brimming withpeople, both young and old; there were also many retail andshopping centre industry experts who had come to check out thecomplex, which has a target set at 50,000 visitors a day, more thanUnirea shopping centre is currently boasting.
"Considering how it is now, with all the dust and work inprogress inside, it hasn't convinced me yet, but I believe it willbe a good project and I will come back, because it has very manystores," says 21-year old Stelian, who lives in Drumul Taberei andgoes to Plaza Romania and Bucuresti Mall often.
The main attraction of the mall in its opening day was the Realhypermarket, which was the most heavily promoted of all stores andattracted many elderly people looking to do their usualshopping.
"It's nice, it's impressive but prices are for millionaires, notfor us, pensioners. We came to look at the dome rather thaneverything else. It is good they are still building nice places foryoung people. I've been to other malls, too, to Carrefour, toBilla, but where is the food store here?" wondered Mrs. Ciupitu,holding another elderly lady by the arm, both of them lookingsomewhat lost on the hallways of the project.
Indeed, most of the bags held by shoppers bore the Real logo,while the line at the door to the Deichmann footwear store mainlyconsisted of people waiting to get a balloon with the Germanretailer's logo.
"We will operate the mall ourselves for a few years, to bring itto the best financial results possible. The loan we took to buildthe mall (234 million euros) is a long term loan, and consideringthe contracts we signed, we get a pretty good margin after we paythe instalment," Opher Linchevski, CEO of AFI Europe, controlled byIsraeli businessman Lev Leviev told ZF.
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