Monday, 25 May 2026
The Romanian retail market is undergoing a significant transition where “expansion for expansion’s sake” is being replaced by a strategy focused on high-density mixed-use concepts. Mădălina Mitan, Partner at Schoenherr and moderator of the Retail and Mixed-Use panel held at CEDER 2026, observes that “consumers now don’t want just a place to shop, they want an experience”. This evolution has placed mixed-use developments at the forefront of urban strategy, as they cater to a growing demand for extreme convenience and efficiency.
Costin Blideanu, General Manager of AFI Brașov, explains that this shift is rooted in a modern psychological need for immediate accessibility: “I think we are in a moment of everybody wants comfort, everybody wants everything now, here, very close, very, very comfortable. And we’re answering to this comfort for the moment (…) everything needs to be in 2 minutes reach”. Mixed-use projects address this by integrating living, working, and social spaces, effectively reducing the daily friction of travel. Blideanu also talks of a shift in the anchors for coming to shopping centers: “Before, people were coming for fashion and more than 80% when they were coming to buy fashion, they were going to the food court. Now they are coming for the food court, restaurants, coffee shops. And if they are there, they will buy also fashion.” This shift is the reason why in AFI Brașov the focus was placed on a different style of food court: “And the figures are absolutely amazing.”
A landmark example of this “all-in-one” philosophy is also the extension of the Promenada Mall in Bucharest, which integrates retail, office space, a hotel, a swimming pool and even a theater. Robert Ioniță, Group General Counsel of NEPI Rockcastle illustrates the seamless user experience such a concept provides: “Imagine that it’s 2027, you are a worker, you have your office in Promenada. At lunch you can go have lunch without even going out of the building, and you can go to the gym, all without leaving one building. In the evening, instead of going home, you can go watch, just watch a movie or see a play or a musical. The traffic, you no longer spend time in traffic”. This density is viewed as a benefit to the city, as it allows thousands of people to remain in one area rather than rushing through overcrowded urban centers.
There are however those who would not bet on the mixed-use concept, such as Geanina Ungureanu, Head of Retail at CPI Property Group, who says “I was thinking about what my colleagues were saying about the mixed-use projects. Honestly, I’m not a big fan, because it depends very much on the elements and their proportion in the project. And you can never just put a pinpoint and say this is the perfect combination, because it depends on the location, it depends on the region, it depends on the people, if they want to go to a theater or to a gym or not. So, this is very, very debatable. So, I will just stick with the shopping centers.” When asked what she would like to see changing in the retail market, she states: “I would really love to see the development of the high street in our town, in the old center with old buildings, with big mono brands to come and to develop these very nice concepts, pop-ups and so on and more this type of European capital that preserves, let’s say, the old city part.”
