TIRANA, Feb. 18 – One of Albania’s biggest commercial centers has been put up for sale after going bankrupt and failing to pay a loan it had taken from a local commercial bank. City Park, the second modern shopping center outside Tirana located in the Tirana-Durres highway opened its doors in 2009 but the crisis Albania has been facing in the past few years and fierce competition from the opening of a new larger shopping center later in 2011 seem to have led the company which built the commercial center and managed it into bankruptcy.
Executores Litium bailiff’s office has announced an auction offering the City Park centre situated in an area of 13.645m2 starting 24.8 million euros, which is less than half of the estimated investment cost for the construction of the shopping centre. The auction is scheduled for March 4, 2015.
The majority stake in CityPark was owned by AM Group which is present in the Albanian market with its Deka soap and detergents brand and the Olim cooking oil.
The investors had borrowed from Tirana Bank, an affiliate of the Greece-based Piraeus Bank Group.
Citypark is Albania’s third largest shopping centre with its 180 shops, a supermarket, a food court, an ice-skating rink, a Cartoonland, and other entertainment areas.
