The deal is the largest transaction in the office leasing industry in southern Romania and brings Hella's local office space footprint to 8,000 sq m, Catinvest said in a press release.
Other tenants such as as Endava, Ubisoft, Continental, and Operative have also chosen ElectroPutere Parc as their base of operations in Craiova. Catinvest intends to invest more than 60 million euro ($65.8 million) in the complex over the next 2 to 3 years to include additional retail, and other services such as co-working spaces and aparthotels, contributing to the development of the region.
"A new test laboratory, the third on the site, will be built on the largest part of the office space extension in ElectroPutere Parc. This follows a new project in the Hella Technical Center Craiova portfolio, with a new generation of products that will replace the old fuse box in the machine with a fully electronic solution. This will be used in electric cars," said Nicolae Neagu, Director of Hella Technical Center Craiova.
Catinvest also manages properties in the Romanian cities of Bucharest and Constanta. In total, the group owns and manages more than 525,000 sq m of space in France and Eastern Europe.
Hella has operated in Romania for more than 17 years and currently employs 5,000, of which 600 in Craiova. The company operates five design and development centers in the country, an administrative center, and three production facilities - in Timisoara, Arad, Lugoj, Craiova, Oradea, and Iasi.