NEPI Rockcastle buys Sofia shopping center for €253m

NEPI Project two EOOD, a subsidiary of NEPI Rockcastle, has acquired Paradise Center in Sofia, Bulgaria, for €252.9 million ($301.9 million).

The seller was BULFELD EOOD.

With a gross lettable area of 883,000 square feet, Paradise Center is the largest retail center in Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria. The center is located in the wealthy southern part of the city, which is undergoing strong development.

Opened in 2013 and benefiting from a corner location at the intersection between two main traffic arteries and direct access to the newly built M2 metro line, Paradise Center has an annual footfall in excess of 10 million visitors. The mall is let to major national and international tenants such as Bershka, Cinema City, Forever 21, H&M, LC Waikiki, Massimo Dutti, New Yorker, Pull & Bear, Reserved, Sephora, Sport Vision, Sofia Event Center (a conference facility), Stradivarius, Technopolis and Zara. The center has a strong food and entertainment area, which includes both a complete fast and slow food line up, a fitness facility with a 25m swimming pool, as well as a playground. Several asset management initiatives, including major improvements to the basement and the terrace level together with enhancements to the tenant mix, will further strengthen its dominant market position.

With a growing population of over 1.32 million inhabitants, Sofia is the economic and cultural center of Bulgaria and an attractive head office destination for international companies. Benefiting from a developing infrastructure and strategic location, Sofia is a major hub for international railway and automobile transport, with three Pan-European corridors crossing the city. During the last couple of years, Bulgaria’s economy has shown robust growth, with GDP growth of 3.6 percent in 2015 and 3.3 percent in 2016. Growth is forecast to remain strong at 2.8 percent-2.9 percentper year in 2017-2021 (compared to a forecast growth of 1.4 percent-1.5 percent in the European Union), as domestic and external demand continues to increase (according to the Economist Intelligence Unit).