Israeli company Melina will break ground next week on its EUR 65 million Mall Markovo Tepe retail and business centre in the southern city of Plovdiv. The mall will go up on an 8,500 sq m in the heart of the city, close to the key shopping area.

Turkish company Intertek was picked to develop the project while Forton International will be in charge of renting out the space. The centre will have a floor space of over 64,000 sq m of which some 22,000 sq m will be retail outlets.

Floors one and two will house commercial space, and the third will have a creche, a couple of cinema halls as well as bars and restaurants. Offices will occupy the fourth to sixth storeys, which will be reached by a separate entrance. The underground floor will accommodate a supermarket. The shopping mall will have a four-storey parking lot for some 650 vehicles, a spa and a fitness centre.

Once completed, the project will create more than 1,000 jobs.

The investor has said it plans to build 12 large-scale power centres in Bulgaria’s regional cities and has already purchases land plots in Vratsa, Plovdiv, Vidin and Ruse, planning to go also in Dobrich, Burgas, Sliven, Yambol, Haskovo and Blagoevgrad.