Almost half the shops in Sofia City Centre Sofia shopping mall did not open for business on April 13 2009, declaring a strike in protest at increased rents charged by the mall's management, media reports said.

Among the protesters is the company using the cinema complex at the mal Cineplex. Retailers are protesting about increased rents charged by landlords.  They complain that the mall's management has disregarded their problems at a time of declining turnover in the wake of the ongoing crisis.

Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily quoted one tenant who said that contracts signed between retailers and the mall stipulated that rental prices should have gone up in January 2009 based on inflation levels reported by both Eurostat and the Bulgarian Statistical Institute.

This increase did not happen, however, something that retailers interpretered as a gesture of goodwill from the mall's management in light of their troubles.

Unfortunately, the increase became a fact in April, prompting tenants' discontent. According to Dnevnik, they demand a meeting with management to renegotiate rental contracts. One option was to peg the rent to the monthly turnover of each shop. This is the case in Mall of Sofia.

A total of 46 retailers have signed a letter to the mall's management demanding better communication and a 30 per cent drop in rental prices for the duration of the crisis, Dnevnik said.

According to the tenant quoted by Dnevnik, contracts they had with the mall left retailers little hope of surviving in the current downturn.

Retailers' requests will have to be filed before the consultancy firm MBL, an associated partner of CB Richard Ellis in Bulgaria, which Investment fund Heitman European Property Partners Fund III (HEPP III) appointed to manage the mall.

The fund bought the mall in 2008 from Equest Balkan Properties for 101.5 million euro. The retail centre officially opened for business in May 2006 and was the first ever shopping mall in Bulgaria.