RosEuro Development Acquires Aura Shopping Center in Novosibirsk from Amstar and Renaissance

By Gabriel Circiog, Associate Editor

Novosibirsk, Russia—Amstar recently announced the sale of the Aura Shopping Center in Novosibirsk, Russia, to RosEuro Development. Although specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed, sources close to the deal labeled the sale as the largest ever retail real estate transaction in Russia outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Located in Novosibirsk, the third largest city in Russia, Aura Shopping Center was built by Amstar in partnership with Renaissance Development and opened back in 2011. The shopping center features over 200 stores and 61,000 square meters (656,600 square feet) of leasable area. Situated close to Lenin Square and the city’s main street, Krasniy Prospect, the four-story building is the premier shopping center in Novosibirsk.

Jason Lucas, president of Amstar Global Advisers, says: “The sale of Aura marks the culmination of a successful project for Amstar and its investors and is an opportunity for RosEuro to add a stabilized, award-winning project to its growing portfolio of Russian regional malls.”

Aura Shopping Center is currently fully leased and is anchored by Okey Hypermarket and MediaMarkt. The mall features a mix of Russia’s most popular retailers including Zara and other Inditex brands, Sportmaster, New Yorker and Adidas. Aura Shopping Center was awarded, in 2012, the “Gold Brick” Award for Russia’s “Best Large Regional Shopping Centre” by Commercial Real Estate Russia at the CRE Federal Awards in St. Petersburg. “This sale demonstrates both the success of Amstar’s global strategy and the strength of our long-standing partnership with Renaissance. We remain confident in the Russian real estate market and will continue to seek out opportunities for commercial real estate development,” adds Jason Lucas. Amstar and Renaissance continue to maintain a strong partnership—the joint venture own four operational shopping centers in Turkey, as well as a fifth, which is scheduled to open in October 2013.

Aura Shopping Center will become the second operational shopping center in RosEuro Development’s Russian portfolio. The company owns and operates Planeta Shopping Center in Krasnoyarsk and is currently developing three other Planeta shopping centers in Ufa, Novokuznetsk and Perm.