Sebastian Mahu

Our 2024 results for the retail segment were similar to those in 2023, when we achieved a 140 million Euro turnover. Across the network, we achieved 8,8% more sales and 3,5% more footfall.

It has been a good year for fashion retailers, including those specializing in men’s fashion, who have recorded increases of up to 30% in some IULIUS centers. Similarly, some footwear retailers saw sales grow by as much as 24%. Jewelry stores performed well, with increases of up to 27%, as did cosmetic stores, which saw a rise of up to 15%. Customers, especially women, are investing more in beauty services, which is reflected in the figures from certain centers, with network-wide growth exceeding 40%.

A trend confirming that customers increasingly seek entertainment facilities when visiting malls has also been reflected in the numbers, with such operators registering increases of up to 25% in some Iulius centers across the country. The food & beverage segment also saw record-breaking performance, with some partners reaching sales of up to €5,000 per square meter per month over several months.

Palas Iași stands out with the best sales results in our group in 2024, achieving a 10% increase compared to 2023. We have started an extensive remodeling and transformation process for this mixed-use project, which will allow us to increase the leasable area up to 80,000 sqm and address international brands’ demands to enter the shopping center, while also including several other entertainment formats and uses.

Also, in 2024, across our network, we inaugurated 65 stores and over 140 island-type units. If we consider the total mall space that has been reconfigured to accommodate these new stores – approximately 22,000 sqm – we can say that, in 2024, we effectively opened a new mall.

As such, we opened themed restaurants, as well as fast food joints, new entertainment concepts, and fitness centers. However, the most exciting dynamic was in the fashion area, so we focused on attracting the brands that are highly anticipated by our clients. This led us to sign the two largest leasing transactions of 2024 in Romania, namely Primark (3,800 sqm) and Lefties (5,000 sqm) which opened in Iulius Town Timișoara and are performing well above expectations. Considering our 98-99% occupancy rate, it was truly a challenge to identify additional GLA to allow us to accommodate these brands. For example, the leasing team reconfigured 14,000 sqm in order to open the two department stores in Iulius Town.

The grand opening of these stores and our focus on events have reflected in the figures, making 2024 a very good year for Iulius Town Timișoara, drawing 11% more footfall compared to 2023. Here we have consolidated what is, to the best of our knowledge, the largest retail area in Romania: leasable area upwards of 190,000 sqm, of which 108,000 sqm in the form of retail space. We strived to create a complete shopping component including all the fashion anchors in Romania, as well as a wide and diverse range of restaurants and coffee shops, sports and wellness venues, necessary services, as well as entertainment options.

As a first in our mall network, at Iulius Mall Iași, which is located in the heart of a student campus, we inaugurated the region’s first common area coworking space last year. This space has been highly popular among both students and freelancers.

The Family Market convenience shopping centers that the company developed in the metropolitan area of Iași have also achieved good results. Both projects have consolidated their market presence, reporting an increase in sales by approximately 45% in the second year as of their grand opening. We are delighted that retailers have seen the same development potential as we did on the outskirts of Iași and have brought first-to-market formats, such as Stay Fit, who opened the first gym in Miroslava Commune in 2024, as well as dm-drogerie markt, who opened their first store in this area.

In the office segment, in 2024, IULIUS signed groupwide leasing agreements for 53,200 sqm of a total 242,000 sqm of office spaces developed in the country, and more than 50% of such agreements are concluded with new partners. The office occupancy rate across our network is between 98-100%. One of last year’s standout transactions was a partnership with a new client from the IT sector (product development) for an 8,500 sqm space in Cluj-Napoca. To our knowledge, this is the largest transaction outside Bucharest in 2024. Also in Cluj, last year we signed contracts for 20,000 sqm out of the total 30,000 sqm covered by the three office buildings developed by IULIUS in the city. Of this, 13,000 sqm were new lease agreements. Notably, the transactions signed by IULIUS accounted for 50% of the total leased office space in Cluj-Napoca in 2024.

Our long-term plans focus on two directions. The first is to maintain the regional leader position of the Iulius Mall network by optimizing the tenant mix, adding new experiences and entertainment uses, as well as through various redesign, modernization, and expansion works.

Thus, one of the Iulius Mall network milestones in the first half of this year will be the completion of the expansion works for our mall in Suceava. Following the 40 million Euro investment in this expansion, the mall will have the largest retail area in the north of Romania, upwards of 60,000 sqm. The exciting new highlights will include: first to region stores by international fashion brands like Lefties Digital Store, Stradivarius, Reserved, Cropp, Mohito and House, restaurants, coffee shops, ice cream parlors, drive thru locations, a gym, green spaces, and additional parking spaces.

The IULIUS centers are not just about shopping, but rather about experiences. Therefore, we are looking into various stores concepts and entertainment, edutainment and dining formats that we could bring into our developments in the upcoming period, both in the Iulius Mall network, and in Palas Iași and Iulius Town Timișoara.

Over the last decade, IULIUS has developed mixed-use urban regeneration projects, and we want to remain committed to this type of investment. Starting from 2025, our company marks a new strategic development stage and will collaborate with Foster+Partners, one of the most innovative and world-renowned architecture firms, for the redesign of Palas Iaşi and for the new mixed-use project in Constanța.

The reconfiguration of the Palas Iași will be an extensive process, carried out in stages starting this year. Foster+Partners is reimagining the multiple uses in the complex – experiences, retail, food, and park – focusing on reconfiguring and optimizing the existing spaces to expand the retail area up to 80,000 sqm GLA.

The project will be redesigned and upgraded in order to address the demands we have from several international retailers. This includes brands that want to access the Iași market, in the mass market and premium category, as well as the anchor brands that already operate in Palas that want to implement their latest store formats. Furthermore, we will also add several entertainment options and dining concepts, and this update will consolidate the market position that Palas holds as the best performing project outside the Capital.

In Constanța, we are planning a large-scale urban reconversion project, entailing an investment upwards of 800 million Euro. The project targets the Oil Terminal platform, which will be completely decontaminated and reconnected to the rest of the city, in a modern, vibrant, and sustainable urban environment. The concept proposed by Foster+Partners offers a vision for the redevelopment of this area, now completely isolated from the rest of the city, transforming it into an attractive urban hub with integrated functions that will support the economy, tourism, and social life. The project will revitalize Constanța City and strengthen its status as a strategic economic, social, and cultural hub, while also contributing to its regional and national competitiveness.

Also, a major focus in 2025 and the upcoming years is on continuing our ongoing development project in Cluj. The urban regeneration project in the heart of Transylvania (an investment upwards of half billion Euro) is further along in the development process, in that we are expecting to obtain the building permit this year, after the Local Council approved the urban zoning plan (PUZ) back in 2024.

2025 will certainly be a challenging year for business. The office and retail markets will also be impacted, as will other industries, by certain fiscal changes in our country, as well as by what will happen at a global level. However, it is too early to make any projections. Besides this, solid companies in Romania that have already sailed through several difficult moments also have the required know-how to manage potential turbulence.

From our perspective, the office market in the three cities where we operate (Iași, Cluj, Timișoara) is somewhat stable. Given the lack of deliveries in terms of new office space, the upper hand goes to the energy efficient, green certified modern buildings that are already developed, located in well-connected, central areas, and especially in proximity to various facilities required by the employees.

We believe that last year’s trends will continue in 2025, in that clients are particularly seeking office spaces with smaller areas and allowing for potential short or medium term growth. Similar to 2024, we also expect to see requests from industries other than IT, such as financial services, marketing, healthcare, etc.

Our office network has a 98-100% occupancy rate, so we are focused on finding solutions to our current partners’ requests, whether in relation to additional office space, premises reconfiguration or remodeling, in the context of the dynamics we see within the companies in the Unites Business Center office buildings. Many are pushing for employees to return to the office and gradually phasing out remote work, while others have their employees fully back to the office, which means they are focused on remodeling their existing premises to best address the changes in their organizational culture and the need for direct team collaboration.

The retail market continues to show growth potential and an appetite for expansion both from developers and from major international chains that either want to access the Romanian market or have recently started to expand in the main cities here. Naturally, their first step is to look at the best performing shopping formats on the market, which poses the challenge to be creative and identify additional GLA.

Clients pay increasing attention to the quality of services and how these support their need for convenience; they want a streamlined purchasing process, ergo the need to implement in-store digital solutions, and ultimately make the buying decision based on the price-to-quality ratio. They also want shopping centers to include as many leisure experiences as possible, so in 2025 developers should continue to focus on bringing new food & beverage options, entertainment and edutainment concepts for children and youth, as well as events and activities for diverse target audiences.

Markets such as Cluj and Constanța, where we are currently developing investments, certainly have major growth potential, and the mixed-use concepts we wish to implement are complex and integrate multiple facilities in areas that are either insufficiently or not at all tapped in these cities. Iași and Timișoara remain abundant in terms of their offers, particularly with the leisure facilities that people in different age and income groups want to access.

In Cluj, the market research we have conducted for RIVUS revealed certain gaps in the retail area, particularly in segments such as premium retailers, entertainment, major anchors, and services. We were glad to see the project be embraced so enthusiastically by retailers wishing to operate here, so in this initial phase we have 50% of partnerships agreed upon for the retail component, which will have a 145,000 sqm leasable area and is set to become the largest retail area in Romania. However, RIVUS will be more than just retail, as we will integrate many features that are currently missing in Cluj: the first live arts center and the first auditorium integrated in a real estate project; the first Jumbo store din Cluj (8,000 sqm); entertainment centers for all ages, including the Hype Arena concept; first-to-region cutting edge cinema technologies and an open air cinema; fresh market; a DIY anchor; more than 30 new concept-restaurants and coffee shops overlooking Someș River, and a park spanning more than 5.2 hectares. The project will also include 15,000 sqm of premium office spaces.

The project in Constanța will be our most extensive one to date, and our goal is to provide the local community with a useful project that is accessible to all, combining mixed uses, and set to become a regional business hub, as well as a year-round destination for all categories of the public. The investment will feature various facilities, making it a year-round attraction: office, retail, entertainment, educational and cultural facilities, retail park, botanical garden, public facilities, Aqua Park, coffee shops and restaurants, a fresh market, etc.