At the heart of contemporary urban development lies the symbiosis of sustainability, smart technology and community-centric design. Atterbury Europe and Iulius Group exemplify this ethos through their strategic partnership, aimed at revolutionising Romania’s urban landscapes. With a pioneering spirit, they intertwine green initiatives, technological advancements and a deep respect for local culture to foster dynamic, inclusive communities. Iulius Development Manager Raluca Munteanu shares her expert insights on integrating these elements to create future-ready developments that honour heritage and inspire progress.
Can you share your insights on the key factors that drive the successful integration of sustainability and smart technology in new property developments?
The major challenge for any developer is to build for the future, which is unpredictable. Our commitment to sustainability is not just a formality. Whether we are talking about renewable energy generation or gardens that provide a refuge amid the urban agglomeration, we aim to bring even more green, even more technological innovation into every new project.
As for digitisation, the technologies utilised in the operation of our buildings portfolio provide smart, astute, safe and high-performance management. From regulating temperature, light and air quality using sensors, to ensuring the security of the premises, these are all aspects that have been improved over time with the help of technologies and based on the history of tenant behaviour.
Digitisation is also making its way into the retail segment, seeking to provide consumers with up-to-date, personalised, and captivating experiences.
We can no longer talk about medium- and long-term business strategies and plans without also considering a technological update, branching into very diverse directions, ranging from technical processes and those related to sustainability, to marketing and consumer experience aspects.
How do you envision the future of mixed-use projects in urban environments, and what role do you believe they will play in community building?
Urban planners all over the world and, implicitly, in Romania, are preoccupied with rediscovering unused areas in important parts of the city, redeveloping and restoring them into the urban circuit — the goal being to expand cities in a sustainable manner for the benefit of the community. As we clearly saw in our developments in Iași and Timișoara, mixed-use projects can have a snowball effect by generating and driving development on several levels. The idea underlying our projects was to give more to the community, to support the development of cities in an interconnected and sustainable manner. The development potential for this kind of projects continues to be enormous.
Iulius opened the first Romanian mixed-use project in Iași, in 2012. Then, alongside Atterbury Europe, we continued this development model in Timișoara, where we opened Iulius Town in 2019, understanding the major impact this type of project would have for Romanian cities. Although we started out as shopping centre developers, over the course of time we understood that simply building a shopping mall or an office building is no longer enough. People want places where they have a sense of belonging, destinations, spaces for the community.
At a national level, our projects focused on undeveloped areas and restoring them, created urban gardens from scratch, upgraded the infrastructure, made them resident-friendly and generated 35,000 jobs!
What sets us apart and is a key to success all at the same time is that everything we build is heavily customised to the specific needs of the city where we choose to invest. When you build investments worth hundreds of millions of Euro, they also have to be embraced and accepted by the people who live in the respective city. This is why we have always started from elements related to the identity of the city. The ‘city within the city’ principle is replicated from one project to the next, but taken separately, each of our projects is individualised to the particulars of the city where it is located. In Iulius Town Timișoara, the focus was on the need for connection with the historical centre of the city and the botanical gardens, the project being intended as a natural extension of the citadel and the pedestrian area. In Cluj-Napoca, we are currently building an urban reconversion mixed-use project, starting from the integration with Someș river and the adjacent parks, and featuring both commercial uses and a premiere in the form of a performing arts centre.
What strategies do you employ to ensure that the projects not only meet current sustainability standards but are also adaptable to future advancements in environmental design?
Nowadays it is hard to separate between responsible urban development and sustainability. All our projects, including urban regeneration ones, are approached through the lens of sustainability, which translates into care for the environment and the community, a concern for making a positive impact on the economy, to stimulate the development of the younger generation and to support Romanian entrepreneurship. Sustainability is virtually a requirement from the very first ideas put on paper.
Sustainability has been a priority for us for many years, and our urban regeneration projects developed in Iași, Cluj-Napoca, and Timișoara confirm our drive to create community-friendly concepts which include, among others, energy efficient buildings surrounded by generous gardens, along with a modern infrastructure designed to integrate our projects seamlessly into the life of the cities. We do this based on a sustainability strategy, with well-established steps and targets to be reached every year.
All our properties are certified in line with international sustainability standards, which attests to the quality of the materials used and the implementation of energy efficient solutions.
Given the nature of our business, efficient waste management is essential for meeting the ESG objectives.
We also support alternative mobility as an instrument for stimulating a healthy lifestyle and reducing pollution. We have invested in the specific infrastructure with all our projects, by fitting bicycle lanes and parking facilities, while also running special projects for our tenants in order to grow the biking community.
In terms of sustainability, one of the most important projects implemented in 2023 was the photovoltaic panel system across the entire portfolio, an extensive project aimed at increasing energy autonomy through installation of photovoltaic panels. The energy thus generated is used for our own consumption, and we expect savings amounting to approximately 10% of the group-wide total energy consumption. This investment cost upwards of 3.5 million Euro. The photovoltaic panels project has a total area of 26,000 sqm., and estimates show that it will generate over 5,500 MWh annually, thus removing 1,500 tons of CO2/year from the circuit, which would have been produced from conventional sources, an impact equivalent to that of a mature forest with more than 20,000 trees.
Also in 2023, we signed a partnership with International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, for the development of a strategy to decarbonise the entire portfolio of the company and achieve the net-zero emissions target, through the Green Pathways for Real Estate Institutional Portfolios (GRIP) platform, the first commitment of this type in Romania.
Sustainability also means investing in green spaces, and Iulius gardens excel in this regard. They were designed by European landscape designers, requiring total investments of 18 million Euro, and they rival the famous parks in other global metropolises. The gardens are a favourite meeting place for residents and, in time, they have become genuine artistic stages.
We will, of course, continue to implement all these directions in our future projects as well.
In the context of urban regeneration, how does Iulius Group and its partners balance the need for modern infrastructure with the preservation of community heritage and local culture?
Integration within the urban fabric is integral to the success of urban regeneration projects, and Iulius has undertaken substantial investments in major infrastructure reconfiguration works, so that the entire architectural concept is aligned with an adequate traffic solution. For instance, in Timișoara we created a four lane underpass, completing a major traffic hub for the city.
In Cluj-Napoca, where we are in the final phase of the permitting process for the urban reconversion project in the former Carbochim industrial platform, we have maintained a constant dialogue with the authorities and the community, because we want it to support and complement the development plans undertaken or determined for the city strategy.
In terms of infrastructure, the project provides the creation of a road bridge and two pedestrian bridges across the Someș river, roundabouts and street widenings, as well as bicycle lanes.
Speaking of community heritage, the project in Cluj could not have been made without having a good grasp of what the Carbochim factory meant for the people who identify with the history of it. For this reason, at a time when everyone is talking about how industrial platforms are being destroyed to make place for real estate developments, we took a different approach. We kept the factory instead of dismantling it, relocated the facility in an area of the city that is more suited for this range of business, kept the employees, and upgraded the technological fixturing with a capital infusion upwards of 5 million Euro.
In terms of cultural-industrial heritage integration in a real estate investment, two monumental buildings on the Carbochim platform will be converted and given back to the community as cultural and experiential spaces. The old Carbochim facility will be converted into a live-arts centre to be managed by some of the most prominent cultural organisations and festivals in Cluj-Napoca, providing the community with a venue for concerts, theatre and contemporary dance performances, as well as fashion, design, and media arts events.
The second building to undergo conversion is the factory administration building, set to be transformed into a space that reunites both coworking facilities and pilot-spaces for promoting entrepreneurs, encouraging local talents and other innovative initiatives.
The mix proposed in the Cluj based project relies on local market studies and the expectations of the community, as consulted via the www.partedincluj.ro platform. Family entertainment centres, indoor and outdoor event venues, facilities that encourage physical exercise and playground areas in the park fitted within the project, a concept-bookstore, a cultural centre and performance hall are some of the integrated facilities.
Another facility for the community is in the form of green areas. The entire project will open towards the Someș river and will be coordinated with the waterfront fit-out masterplan of the municipality, integrating naturally in the new green and blue axis of the city.