Since the start of 2009, only two malls have been completed in Bulgaria, Mall Plovdiv and Bourgas Plaza, 20 000 and 26 000 sq m in area, respectively.

With that, the total mall retail area in Bulgaria today adds up to 233 460 sq m, which is a 24.54 per cent increase on the corresponding existing retail area in 2008, a Foros report said.

Currently, there are several other malls and smaller retail complex centres under construction, or poised for construction across Bulgaria at some point in the future, said the Foros report, quoted by Bulgarian news agency Focus.

Concurrently, however, the number of frozen and abandoned projects for such malls has also risen because of the ever-encroaching economic stagnation in the country and the lack of readily available credit.

Amongst the affected undertakings are Evropa Park, Sofia Acropolis, Tsarigradski Mall, DLS Mall Sofia, Grand Galeria Mall Bourgas, the two malls in Pazadjik, and several others.

Furthermore, contrary to previous years, there are no mall projects contemplated in the near future. As of 2009, only three new ideas were expressed, Trade Centre Sliven, belonging to European Convergence Company, with a total are a of 51 169 sq m, Redstone's City Mall Blagoevgrad, with 47 982 sq m, and Expirian's Centrall Mall in Dobrich at 12 000 sq m. However, these projects are only in the planning phase.

The only significant construction expected to be launched towards the third quarter of 2009 is Bourgas' open air mall, Strand. At 30 000 sq m, the project is expected to be completed and opened for business by the end of 2010.