1977: THE BIRTH OF A BUSINESS.
The company started out as a small building firm, with its headquarters in Milan. It took part in the construction of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. It later went on to enjoy growth thanks to private customer contracts and acquired invaluable experience in designing, building, financing and leasing the shopping centres it built to large-scale distribution groups. In 1991, the company changed its name to ImmobiliarEuropea SpA. Starting in the late 80s the company radically changed its strategy: from a high-organisational-effort and low-added-value business concern (construction company operating on behalf of third parties, always in the private sector), to a low- organisational-effort, high-added-value activity (customer, with the growth of its own property development operations). The sector in which the Company has acquired specific expertise and experience is that of retail shopping centres in particular, as well as in the residential, hotel and other sectors. Market orientation and focus on end customers, on their needs and on solutions and services to satisfy them, have required additional skills besides the typical, technical and operational ones of the production process, which have not obviously been neglected.
So it is that the following abilities have become distinctive skills:
- to search, select and acquire land in the best locations for real estate development projects;
- to develop the concept and take care of its design cycle, from the preliminary project through to implementation, including building licence and worksite working plan and planning permission;
- to analyse, evaluate and plan the complex and articulated urban planning and building, environmental and landscape, road and noise authorisation processes, interacting with the numerous bodies and organisations in charge of authorising projects that are often of significant size and with a significant economic, commercial and social impact on the area in which they are located;
- to draw up business plans with fine-tuning of economic, financial, profitability, marketing and commercial aspects, for presentation to banks for financial coverage;
- to identify, at an early stage, potential customers for shopping centres, on which to “shape” the final product according to commercial needs, enter into the relevant lease or sales contracts and deliver the finished and habitable product;
- to perform the activity of “general contractor”, outsourcing specialized activities (structures, mechanical and electrical systems, special systems, windows, doors, floors and walls, etc.), while maintaining strong supervision, with its own technical staff, of the entire production process, with control of the quality, schedules and costs of the various operating phases;
- to invest on its own account, keeping for itself part of the complexes built for return on investment, but also participating in joint ventures with large large-scale retail groups (Auchan Group).
