Moritz to invest €500m in Romanian malls

Developer Michael Whelan's Moritz Group is planning to invest €500 million in building 10 shopping malls in Romania.

Moritz, which has been active in property and technology investments, plans to develop the malls through a consortium, Mivan. The 10 malls will be built in urban centres in Romania and will have about 25,000sq m to 30,000sq m (82,000sq ft to 98,000sq ft) available to rent to retail tenants.

Reports yesterday said the total value of the investment will be in the region of €500 million.

It is understood that Mivan has already bought the land for seven malls. They are scheduled to be completed in 2010.

The malls will operate under the brand Tiago, and Colliers International will act as rental agent for the chain.

Mr Whelan is a director and shareholder in Maplewood Developments, which is building the Adamstown urban centre near Lucan, Co Dublin. Adamstown is the biggest residential development project in the Republic and will include 10,000 new homes, shopping and other amenities.

Mr Whelan established Moritz a number of years ago. It has targeted emerging markets in eastern and central Europe for investment and has been doing business in Romania since late 2005.

Mivan is working on two other projects in the Romanian capital of Bucharest: the Liberty Centre shopping district and the New Town residential development.

Last year, it was involved in the €20 million purchase of Home Farm, a 90-acre site in west London, through the Denham Park Group, a joint venture of Moritz and another investor, ARCL.

Also last year, it invested €20 million in Dundalk-based telecoms and broadband provider Digiweb. The company used some of the cash raised to finance a 200-job expansion announced last month.

Moritz has hired a number of local advisers to work with it on its Romanian projects. It has also said it is interested in partnerships with Romania's banks and other investors.

A number of major Irish players have made large investments in central and eastern Europe. These include Quinn Group, which numbers the Prague Hilton among it properties, Seán Mulryan's Ballymore group, which is involved in developments in Bucharest, and RI Investment Group.

Most of the EU accession states are set to receive huge amounts of structural funding over the next 10 years.