New marketplace for trade and restaurant industry
Approx. 1,000 new jobs for Pécs

Pécs - On Wednesday, 31 March 2004, after a construction period of only 18 months, the shopping gallery Árkád Pécs, which is ideally located in the inner city of Pécs, has opened it’s gates. An impressive offer of high-quality goods and services are presented on a total of 35,000 square meters of sales surface by nearly 130 international and local stores in the generous and light-flooded ambience of the shopping gallery. To make this possible, the Deutsche EuroShop AG as well as HGA Capital Grundbesitz und Anlage GmbH, who is member of the HSH Nordbank group have invested about 100 million Euros / 25 billion Forint and thereby are securing nearly 1,000 long-term jobs.

Short distances to the shopping gallery
The shopping gallery is distinguished by its excellent location. Situated in direct proximity to the old center of town, the Árkád is easily accessible by car and by means of public transportation. 850 parking spaces are available for customers arriving by car. Directly opposite of the shopping gallery lies the main bus station, and the railway station is in a distance of just a few minutes on foot.
„With the Árkád Pécs, the town is granted a new and colorful marketplace which at the same time will be a lively event center”, says André Galyas, who in his role as a center manager will direct the shopping gallery with expertise and has already planned a comprehensive cultural program. These favorable aspects will help the Árkád develop into a lively shopping center and will attract clients from the entire region. The trading area has a population of approx. 540,000 inhabitants. 189,000 people live within 15 minutes reach of the center.

Many local and regional retail businesses
Around 130 specialty shops, an Interspar SB department store, a Media Markt outlet, a C&A clothing store and the sporting outfitter Hervis will provide a wide range of products on two sales floors. All store entities have already been leased since several months. Whereby, a large percentage of the retailers at the Árkád Pécs originate directly from the town and its surrounding area. Familiar names and stores will give the center its own distinctive character.

But also national and international chains such as Alexandra Buchhaus, Maskara, Dundi Divat, Persona, Artz Modell, Jeans Club, Douglas, Mexx, Humanic and Tom Tailor provide an attractive range of products. An architectural and culinary highlight of the center is the Food-Court on the upper level. Here, sitting under a generous glass dome, the customers can enjoy local and international cuisine while observing the other visitors of the gallery during their shopping stroll.

The project partners
Project partners for this 100 million Euro investment are the Deutsche EuroShop AG, HGA Capital Grundbesitz und Anlage GmbH, as well as the ECE group.

Deutsche EuroShop AG is the only corporation in Germany that invests exclusively in profit-yielding shopping centers. The company currently holds shares in 14 European shopping centers in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Hungary. For the most part, these shopping centers are situated at inner-city locations and dispose of a leasing surface of over 500,000 m² with approx. 1,200 shop entities. The proportionate volume of investment amounts to 1.2 billion Euros of which Germany holds a share of 84 %.

HGA Capital – founded in 1972 – is initiator of closed-end property funds and belongs to the Nordbank group. The HSH Nordbank AG has come out of a merger of the Hamburgische Landesbank and the Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein.

HGA Capital offers investment funds with a main focus on commercial real-estate. These include office / business / administration centers, hotels and shopping centers. Small-scale investments in housing have also been made. The properties in question are located in Germany, in the USA, Hungary, Austria and United Kingdom. The distribution of the closed-end real-estate funds created by HGA Capital is effected mainly through well-chosen banks and savings banks.

The project development, general planning, leasing and long-term management is handled by the ECE Projektmanagement Budapest Kft. The ECE group already manages a very successful shopping gallery in Hungary: the Árkád Örs vezér tere in Budapest.

For 39 years now, ECE develops, realizes, leases and manages large-scale business real-estate projects. In the 75 shopping centers in Germany, Poland, Turkey, Hungary and Katar, 7,100 tenants produce a yearly turnover of 8.4 billion Euros on 2.1 million square meters of sales surface. This makes ECE by far the European market leader. Additionally, ECE has realized 38 office and special real-estate projects. Thirteen shopping galleries are currently under construction or in the planning phase.

Contact:

André Galyas
ÁRKÁD Pécs bevásárlóközpont
7622 Pécs
Bajcsy-Zsilinszky u. 11/1.
Telephone: +36 / 72 / 517-770

Dr. Andreas Mattner
ECE Projektmanagement G.m.b.H. & Co. KG
Telephone: +49 / 40 / 60606293

Patrick Kiss
Deutsche EuroShop AG
Telephone: +49 / 40 / 413579-20