Varna welcomes ‘super-mall’

The second largest real estate deal in Bulgarian history has now opened for business…

Varna's Mayor Kiril Yordanov and Krasimir Uzunov, Executive Director of Mall Varna cut the ribbon and officially opened the biggest shopping center in Bulgaria Thursday. The parking garage with 800 parking spaces was able to accommodate the many Varna residents who came to see their city's newest attraction.

Mall Varna has a total all-out build-up area of 70 000 square meters, including 33 000 square meters of commercial space. Its 150 stores have already been contracted for the maximum period of ten years. Brands such as New Yorker, Camper and Burger King will be represented for the first time in Bulgaria.

The mall in Bulgaria's Sea Capital will also have a children's center named Capella Play, and an ice skating facility called Avangard Ice, as well as the first "Arena " movie theater in the city with 1, 3 thousand seats and eight movie theaters. The façade of the five-storey building of Mall Varna will be illuminated by a unique light show changing the light color every thirty minutes.

The Mall Varna was constructed by the Bulgarian Interservice Uzunovi Jsc. In the fall of 2007 it was bought by the Scottish Miller Developments, a subsidiary of Miller Group. The price of EUR 120 M was record for the purchase of a commercial center in Bulgaria. This is also the second largest real estate deal in the country.

Exciting times for Varna

The opening of the Mall comes at a prosperous time for Varna, which has recently overtaken Sofia as Bulgaria’s most expensive apartment market. According to data from the Varna-based Foros real estate agency, the average price of new apartments in Varna was 1188 euro per square metre, compared to 1043 euro per square meter in Sofia.

Dobromir Ganev, Managing Director of the Foros agency, commented: “The main reason for this is the lack of large-scale residential complexes that are being developed now in cities like Sofia and Plovdiv, There were several gated complexes in the planning stage in Varna, but they won’t be built soon”.

He added: “One of the main trends on the property market in 2007 was the interest in older brick buildings. This was because a smaller part of common areas were calculated in the price and the lack of newly-built apartments. There were buyers that simply preferred older buildings and those buildings are located in the central areas of the cities, where supply is very limited. There was the greatest under-supply in the centres of large regional towns. This had lead to buyers looking for properties in the suburbs”.