Â鶹ӳ»­

King Sturge has been appointed to provide management set-up advice on a major new shopping centre on the outskirts of the Albanian capital, Tirana.

The property adviser said the new EUR 48 mln scheme will help to offset a huge imbalance in the supply of retail space in the area.

Tirana East Gate shopping centre will comprise 70,000 m² of gross built area, including car parking. The project has been awarded a EUR 24 mln long-term debt facility by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD), following a feasibility study undertaken by King Sturge's Croatia office on behalf of EBRD.

Tirana East Gate will be developed by a special purpose vehicle wholly owned by Albanian development and investment company Mane TCI Sh.p.k, which is an affiliate of the Balkan Finance Investment Group (Balfin).

Featuring around 103 tenants, including three anchor stores, and 1,643 parking spaces, it is due to open in December 2010. Located 5 km south of Tirana in an area also earmarked for residential and leisure, access to the scheme will be significantly improved by a new ring road, which will also be part funded by EBRD.

King Sturge has also been appointed by the same developer to provide a property management services review of its existing 46,000 m² QTU Tirana mall in the city centre which opened in 2005. This is currently the only major successful shopping centre serving the city rather than specific districts.

John Michell, head of Shopping Centre Management at King Sturge, comments: 'The Albanian property market has changed significantly over the last couple of years from an undeveloped Eastern European country with no international product to one where new schemes are being built to global standards. This transformation has mainly been driven by the acquisition of local banks by international institutions and the restructuring of the land register system, both of which have made development finance more readily available.'