Budapest's answer to Bond Street

17 Nov, 2005, Budapest

London has Bond Street, Paris has Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Milano has Via Montenapoleone, Vienna has Köhlmarkt, and Budapest will soon have Deák Ferenc utca, Fashion Street.

Hungarian development corporation Immobilia Rt has acquired over 8,000 sq m of retail space on Deák Ferenc utca, a 150 metre-long street in the heart of downtown Budapest, opposite five-star hotels Le Meridien and Kempinski Hotel Corvinus. Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker is the exclusive letting agent, and marketing and branding consultant on the scheme.

The street is perfectly situated between Budapest's two main squares, Deák Ferenc tér and Vörösmarty tér, and is directly linked to Budapest's high street, Váci utca.

Two retail units on Fashion Street have already been completed and successfully leased. Hugo Boss operates a flagship store of 600 sq m and Max Mara one of 300 sq m. Both stores opened in August 2004.

Now Immobilia is restoring the remaining buildings in the street and upgrading the retail units to meet modern retailer requirements. The units, ranging in size from 50-4,000 sq m will be ready for handover in summer 2006.

"Fashion Street will be an exclusive fashion street in the heart of fashionable Budapest, redeveloped to meet the needs of high-end retailers within classical buildings," says Péter Csipak, CEO of the developer Immobilia. "As well as landscaping the street, we will build an impressive glass roof over Fashion Street, making shopping a pleasure all year round," he adds.

Fashion Street will be marketed and managed as Budapest's first high-end fashion destination.

"There is considerable potential for high-end retailers to flourish in Budapest. However, so far no high-end street has emerged," says John McKie, Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker's Head of Retail in Hungary. "This is the gap which Fashion Street will fill, essentially creating a high-end destination in the Hungarian capital," says John McKie.

"We bring to Fashion Street a wealth of experienced and best-pracatice marketing and management techniques from working on some of the most exclusive retail destinations in the world," says Jane Petrie, C&W/H&B's Head of Marketing and Business Development in Hungary. "Fashion Street is branded as a high-end fashion brand, and it will be marketed to selected retailers and future high-spending shoppers as such."

Fashion Street was launched at MAPIC in Cannes on 16-18 November 2005.

More information can be found at www.fashionstreet.hu

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