Iulius Iasi

pending

Iulius Holding SRL (“Iulius” or “Sponsor”) is a leading retail and office space developer in Romania with a portfolio of Class A buildings integrated in mixed-use projects that is wholly owned by Mr. Iulian Dascalu. IFC is considering providing financing of up to c. €140 million of own-account and mobilized debt funding to two project companies established by Iulius to, respectively, build and operate two new and modern Class A office buildings in a key regional town of Iasi, Romania, for a total development cost of  c. €232 million (the “Project”).The project will include two EDGE certified Class A office buildings with c. 104k sqm combined gross leasable area (GLA). Phase I (“UBC Campus”) consists of a 6-storey campus of 58k sqm of GLA, while Phase II (“UBC Palace Tower”) consists of a c. 26-storey tower building of 46k sqm of GLA. Both buildings are expected to be primarily let out to information technology and communications (IT&C) companies and also include retail space. The project footprint is 20,000 sqm for Phase I and 8,000 sqm for Phase II, including 1 km of connection roads.The project area (https://www.google.ro/maps/@47.1559977,27.5843825,605m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en)is a previously developed privately owned residential area located near the Palace of Culture, a historical landmark of Iasi, which is under special protection. Iulius purchased the project area (85 land parcels with houses and other structures) on a willing seller / willing buyer basis over a period of two years. At the time of the project appraisal, around 64 structures had already been demolished and the entire Phase 1 area had been cleared for development. The project is not within a culturally and historically protected area, but as the silhouette of the area (including the Palace) is under protection, Phase II, being a high-rise building, will have to get special permit from the local and national authorities.The construction of Phase I commenced in 1Q20 and will take 24 months to complete. Phase II is set to start in 1Q21 with 30 months needed for completion. Iulius Real Estate (“IRE”), which is a subsidiary of Iulius, is responsible for the entire development process, including designs, contracting architects, engineering services and construction supervision. IRE will thus supervise the performance of the general contractor, Build Corp SRL (“General Contractor”), a local construction company that has a proven track record of building 6 similar projects for Iulius in the past. Iulius Management Center, another subsidiary of Iulius, will be responsible for operation and maintenance. The cleaning, security and maintenance services are provided by in-house subsidiary entities of Iulius in all its assets.