Argo Real Estate has appointed DTZ's Romanian arm, DTZ Echinox, to manage its Suceava and Sibiu shopping centres in Romania. 'By winning these two major retail schemes, DTZ triples the size of its property management portfolio, only four months after the restructuring of the department,' the broker said.

DTZ is to double the size of its management team in the country, adding 11 more staff.

'The restructuring of our Property Management department has already shown results by successfully securing two major retail instructions,' said Tim Wilkinson, joint managing director of DTZ Echinox.

Shopping City Sibiu, with 79,130 m2 of space, opened in November 2006, and is currently anchored by international retailers including Metro's Real Hypermarket and Carrefour. In 2007 Argo carried out a 4,000 m2 extension to the property, anchor tenanted by sporting goods retailers New Yorker, Deichmann and Hervis.

Shopping City Suceava, with 48,000 m2 of gross lettable area, is anchored by a number of international retailers including a Carrefour hypermarket and a Mobexpert furniture superstore. The scheme comprises a 12,000 m2 retail gallery with over 100 stores.

In Romania, DTZ Echinox's property management department currently manages the 48,000 m2 Iris Shopping Center, owned by Aberdeen Immobilien, Macromall Brasov, owned by Carpathian Asset Management, as well as two office buildings - EvoCenter One and Baneasa Business Center - part of Black Sea Global Properties' portfolio.