The Dâmbovița Center (also named Casa Radio) is an unfinished building in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, near

Cotroceni Cotroceni is a neighbourhood in western Bucharest, Romania located around the Cotroceni hill, in Bucharest's Sector 5. The nearest Metro stations are Eroilor, Academia Militară, and Politehnica. History The Hill of Cotroceni was once covered ...

, on the shore of the

Dâmbovița River Dâmbovița can refer to these places in Romania: * Dâmbovița County * Dâmbovița (river) * Dâmbovița Center The Dâmbovița Center (also named Casa Radio) is an unfinished building in Bucharest, Romania, near Cotroceni, on the shore of ...

. Casa Radio (meaning ''Radio House'') was erected during the late 1980s by the Communist regime on land which before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

was the location of the Bucharest

Hippodrome The hippodrome ( el, ἱππόδρομος) was an ancient Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words ''hippos'' (ἵππος; "horse") and ''dromos'' (δρόμος; "course"). The term is used i ...

. The building was intended to serve as a museum of the Romanian Communist Party. The balcony (which no longer exists) of the unfinished building facing Știrbei Vodă Street was used by the Romanian dictator

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He ...

on 23 August 1989 to watch the festivities marking Romania's National Day. It was the last Communist-style parade in Romania. The Romanian government contracted the construction of a hotel and a mall called "Dâmbovița Center" to the Turkish company Cenk Vefa Kucuk. The project was supposed to be a $275 million investment and the largest multipurpose complex in the region. It was supposed to build a 300-room hotel, 69,000 m² of retail spaces, 16,000 m² of offices, 45,000 m² of commercial galleries and a residential complex, designed to include 200 apartments, a parking lot, restaurants and a hospital. The government, which provided the building, would get only 10% of the income. The government canceled the contract in 2005 because of various irregularities regarding the auction, the company and the financing. The company said it would sue to recover the money already invested. In the winter of 2006, a public-private partnership agreement between

Elbit Medical Imaging Elbit Imaging Ltd., formerly Elbit Medical Imaging Ltd., is an Israeli holding company with activities in real estate, medical imaging, hotels, shopping malls, and retail. The company was founded as a spin-off from Elron Electronic Industries an ...

, an Israeli company, and the Romanian government was announced to develop Casa Radio. The Romanian Government will remain a 15% partner in the scheme. Construction began in June 2007, after a decision to demolish 70% of the initial building, keeping only the

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

and the structural framework. The new project will consist of a mall of , a five star hotel with 320 rooms, a residential area with 300 apartments and three office towers of 26, 30 and 34 floors with the last tower having . Plaza Centers, the developer of Casa Radio in Bucharest entered in 2013 judicial reorganization under the protection of the Dutch bankruptcy law, the Israeli investor Mordechay Zisser announced. Plaza Centers intends to invest in Romania in projects with a total value of nearly EUR 2 billion, the largest of projects being Dâmbovița Center, built on the platform of Casa Radio. In July 2014, Plaza Centers successfully completed debt restructuring and emerges from reorganization proceeding, and after 2014 it sold Kragujevac Plaza in Serbia and a shopping center in India. The development of Casa Radio comprises approximately of built area, including a GLA shopping mall and indoor leisure center, approximately GBA of offices, hotel complex with conference center and underground car parking spaces. The Company Plaza Centers expected to complete the first phase of the project, which includes the shopping center, parking and PAB, in 2017.

References

External links

Plaza Centers redevelopment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dambovita Center Unfinished buildings and structures in Romania Buildings and structures in Bucharest