Real estate developer AIC International & Logistic Development will develop and deliver two warehouses for local online fashion retailer Fashion Days, under a built-to-suit lease arrangement. Belgian real estate investor Vabeld Group, through its Romanian subsidiary Varoed, will provide funding and long-term holding of this project, according to a company statement.

The two warehouses will be located within the A1 Business Park on the Bucharest-Pitesti motorway. The park covers a total surface of 70 hectares.

One of the warehouses will have a built surface of 7,289 sqm and is due in April 2016 while the second one will cover 6,425 sqm and is to be completed in May 2016. Both buildings have separate areas for offices and deposits and will include external platforms for access and parking.

The two buildings will allow Fashion Days to meet the demand of its expanding operations over the medium term. “Fashion Days' new business model involves a larger stock of products coming from new collections, a shorter delivery time, and a greater diversity for our customers. For the moment, the selection we provide to our customers counts 500,000 items, but we are looking at increasing this number. To implement these changes, new warehousing premises were needed,” said Razvan Predica, CEO Fashion Days.

AIC Industrial and Logistic Development Romania is a division of AIC Srl. The team is present in Romania since 1995, being active in the automotive and real estate sectors. AIC has developed and sold more than 350,000 sqm of class A industrial and logistics buildings in Romania, such as Cefin Logistic Park Bucharest (currently owned by P3), A1 Business Park (currently owned by VALAD), Cefin Logistic Park in Arad (currently owned by CTP) and Dunca Logistic Park in Timisoara (still owned by AIC).

Since 2013, AIC has also been active in real estate project recovery, both for projects formerly owned by the company and third-party projects. In the last 2 years, the company has successfully completed transactions with a total value in excess of EUR 30 million.

Vabelda/Vabeldi/Vabeldo are Belgian real estate holdings consisting of a group of property investment companies with more than 30 years of experience in purchasing, letting, and (re)developing retail properties, both city center stores and out-of-town retail parks mainly in Belgium, France, the U.K., Brazil and recently Germany, Slovakia, and Romania.

Fashion Days started in Switzerland in 2009 but is currently operating in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. Since 2011, the retailer is part of the global digital and media group Naspers.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com