Bulgaria's Largest Mall to Pop Next to 1st IKEA Store

The breaking ground for the largest so far shopping mall in Bulgaria will be made in June 2011, in the area of the southern loop of the capital Sofia's beltway.

The news was reported Wednesday by the Minister of Regional Development, Rosen Plevneliev, who, together with the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, inspected the construction of the road junction "Simeonovo" to the "Mladost" junction on the beltway.

The mall will have an area of 180 000 square meters and the investment amount is estimated at over BGN 100 M.

It will be built right near to the first ever "IKEA" store in Bulgaria. representatives of the developer, a joint venture between Greek-based Danaos Development and Fourlis Group, the IKEA franchisee for Bulgaria, had a meeting on this occasion with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov

"Under the request of the IKEA management, by September 15, when the furniture store is scheduled to open doors, the south loop local line and the traffic circle there will be ready," Plevneliev announced.

The new junction with the traffic circle will be built on the current road to the "Simeonovo" ski lift with a new road connection to "Kliment Ohridski" boulevard and the "Bistrishko Shosse" street, reducing travel time between "Bulgaria" boulevard and the "Mladost" district on the beltway to 7-8 minutes compared to the current half hour to one hour, according to the Mayor.

The new construction and repairs of the capital beltway are to include 440 m of bridges.