Ireland's Caelum Development has received a building permit for the Parklake Plaza shopping centre in Bucharest. Construction work is expected to start in July this year.

Sonae Sierra, which in 2008 announced it was creating a 50/50 joint venture with Caelum to build the mall, is said to be reconsidering its position as a result of changes in the project design which will be reduced from the 100,000 m2 announced in April 2008 to 67,000 m2.

'Sonae Sierra maintains discussions with Caelum to analyse any possible future collaboration on the project as the previous agreement contract with Caelum terminated, but for the time being there is no contractual agreement regarding a possible partnership,' a company spokesperson told PropertyEU.

The mall is 35% pre-leased to retailers Cora, Cinema City, Pure Fitness, IT&C retailer Flanco and cosmetics retailer Douglas. The total investment is estimated at EUR 250 mln.

Caelum was established in 2002 by a group of three private Irish investors and focuses on the development of commercial properties in Poland, Hungary, Germany and Romania.