lt;P gt;The largest British clothing retailer Marks amp;amp;Spencer Group Plc set up a joint venture with the Greek Marinopoulos Group to expand its business in Eastern Europe, Bloomberg reported on February 29. lt;P gt; lt;P gt;The British company acquired 50 per cent of Marks amp;amp;Spencer Marinopoulos BV, which manages 38 outlets under franchise in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Switzerland, for amp;nbsp; 50 million euro. Marks amp;amp;Spencer plans to open 50 new outlets on the Balkans in the coming years, Bloomberg said. lt;P gt; lt;P gt;The acquisition is a part of Marks amp;amp;Spencers expansion and investment strategy, which includes boosting the share of international revenues to between 15 and 20 per cent over the next five years. lt;P gt;
Polands real estate developer Globe Trade Center GTC, which has mall projects in the Bulgarian cities of Stara Zagora, Varna and Bourgas, as well as several plots in Sofia, has announced plans to invest about 1.5 billion euro in new projects across CEE Central and East Europe during 2008 and 2009, investor.bg reported. The companys activity will be directed primarily towards acquiring land and developing new
John Cutts, the founder and chief executive of commercial property developer Parkridge, is continuing his expansion into East Europe, the Financial Times reports.Although the entrepreneurs initial plans envisaged expansion to Poland, due to its key location, he also saw good opportunities for investment in retail compounds in Bulgaria and Ukraine. Seven retail centres have been erected in Warsaw since Parkridges accession to the Polish market, which means that it might be oversupplied soon, the developer said. He added that the Czech Republic used to offer good potential, but it faced a similar problem of reaching its capacity for absorbing commercial establishments.
The Greek group Fourlis has signed a 12.081 million euro preliminary contract for the purchase of a plot in Sofia where it plans to develop the first IKEA hypermarket in the country, investor.bg reported. Negotiations for the land started in November last year, Fourlis officials said, but they refused to give details about its size and location.
Investment Corporation of Dubai offered 3 billion euro for Inmobiliaria Colonial, the Spanish developer that owns of Riofisa, which is developing two projects in Bulgaria worth more than 450 million euro, Bloomberg reported on February 28.
lt;P gt;Bourgas city hall plans to build three new residential areas in the suburbs, it emerged after mayor Dimitur Nikolov and his deputy in charge of construction, Kostadin Markov, met Bulgaria Building and Construction Chambers members and members of the Chamber of Engineers in Investment Projects, Dnevnik daily reported on February 28. lt;P gt; lt;P gt;Kiosheto neighbourhood, the area between Srafovo and Bourgas and Kraimorie neighbourhood will be developed as residential districts. The buildings planned for construction are two and threestoreys, but also skyscrapers. lt;P gt; lt;P gt;The required infrastructure for the future residential boroughs will be built up with a concession contract or publicprivate partnership.
lt;P gt;Leasing for the third stage of Serbias first business park, Airport City Belgrade, has started recently, with Colliers International Serbia acting as leasing agent. Four buildings, each featuring 9 500 sq m of Class A office space, have already been constructed. The third stage of construction, featuring two buildings with 11 000 sq m each of office space, will be completed this summer, Colliers said. lt;P gt; lt;P gt;Airport City Belgrade seeks to provide its tenants a City within a City, and received two awards in 2006, one for the best project for office space in Belgrade and the Organisation for Economic Construction and Development award for largest greenfield investment in South East Europe. lt;P gt;
lt;P style quot;MARGINBOTTOM 0cm quot; gt;The lack of vacant construction plots in Sofia and resulting high prices drove investors beyond the city boundaries to suburban areas in search of available building space, Kapital weekly reported. lt;P gt; lt;P style quot;MARGINBOTTOM 0cm quot; gt;Its unsurprising that the capital is the countrys winner in terms of population and construction density, whereas suburban villages in Sofia region, by contrast, are one of the countrys most sparsely inhabited areas. lt;P gt; lt;P style quot;MARGINBOTTOM 0cm quot; gt;However, recently, prompted by lack of available land for construction orand the desire to escape urban congestion and noise, many investors have set their sights on areas around Sofia. lt;P gt;