Orbi City Mall Batumi: Retail Space Sources Guide (2026)

Orbi City Mall Batumi is the retail podium of the Orbi City complex on Khimshiashvili Street, where the developer Orbi Group says commercial space is offered for sale, and the developer’s pages print no price, no space sizes and no number of spaces for sale.

This guide to Orbi City Mall Batumi sets out what four kinds of source print as seen on 9 November 2026, shows where they differ without choosing between them, lists what to ask for in writing before a reservation, and adds sourced background on buying commercial space in Georgia: registration, VAT, profit and income tax, property tax and the residence rule. Where a page is silent, the guide says so.

Overview of Orbi City Mall Batumi

The project page of Orbi Group at orbi.ge describes the mall as the new urban centre of Batumi, placed inside the Orbi City complex, and says it brings together shopping, entertainment and social life. The card for the project on the developer’s projects list states that the mall opened in 2026 and that commercial spaces are available for sale. The commercial real estate page lists Orbi City at 7 Khimshiashvili Street under the heading “For Lease and Sale”.

The English project page says the mall welcomes nearly 250 brands in fashion, dining, entertainment and everyday services; the Russian page is written in the future tense and says about 250 brands will be represented. Two partners are named: Cushman & Wakefield | Veritas, described as a real estate services company, and Chapman Taylor, described as an architecture and design studio. The page does not say what role the first partner has.

No price, no area for any space, no number of spaces offered for sale, no tenant name and no handover or opening date for the spaces is printed on any of the pages read. The spaces are commercial (retail and food service, according to the leasing application form), not residential, and the listing on this site is therefore filed under the office type. The table summarises what the developer prints.

What each source prints about the mall

Because the developer pages are short, the useful exercise is to set every source next to the others, with its date, and to leave the differences standing. The first table does that for the figures and wordings that are printed. Every cell is a statement of the source named in the column, as read on 9 November 2026; none is corrected or ranked here.

The wording differences fall into three groups. The first is timing: the card uses the past tense (“opened in 2026”), the Russian project page uses the future tense for the brands, and the architect’s project page, as fetched on 9 November 2026, still shows a design-stage status line. Each page is dated differently or not at all, so they may describe different moments rather than disagree about one moment; no page says which of them is current.

The second group is area. The leasing site gives 80,000 sqm for the mall. Chapman Taylor lists a mall line of 8,159 m² and a retail line of 27,705 m² inside a scheme of 126,139 m² gross built area, and the scheme is described as a new mixed-use quarter, not as the existing podium.

Neither source says what its measure covers (gross, lettable, or the whole podium), and neither says whether the architect’s scheme and the mall in the leasing site are the same floor area.

The third group is count. The English page and the leasing site use different units (brands and retail units), and the number of spaces actually offered for sale is not given by any source. A buyer who sees “250” in two places should treat it as a description of the whole mall, not as the number of spaces that can be bought.

Location of Orbi City Mall Batumi: Khimshiashvili Street and the city

The developer places the mall within the Orbi City complex, which its English page puts “next to Heroes Alley” in the main tourist area of Batumi, near the Black Sea coast. The Russian page of the complex gives 50 metres to the beach. The street is Khimshiashvili Street, and the sources print the house number in different forms, as the next table shows.

The variants are not necessarily in conflict, since a large complex can carry several numbers for its blocks, but the registry address of any space is a separate matter that the sale contract and the Public Registry extract state. Coordinates for the complex exist only as an approximate point in OpenStreetMap, tagged as under construction, and there is no separate point for the mall; the distances below are therefore measured from that complex point and are labelled as straight-line or road.

These figures are calculated from public map data on 9 November 2026 and are approximate; the starting point is the middle of the complex, not the entrance of a particular space.

The airport is the most useful of them for a buyer who does not live in Batumi: the airport point is about 3.5 km from the complex point in a straight line and 4.8 km by road. The boulevard is 7 km long, so the single point used for it is one place along its length.

For the wider setting, the National Statistics Office of Georgia reports a population of 3,941.1 thousand for the country on 1 January 2026, of which Adjara A.R. had 413.2 thousand, 279.9 thousand of them in urban settlements (Geostat, 24 April 2026). The release has no separate figure for the city of Batumi. Dividing the regional figure by the national one gives about 10.5% (calculated).

Geostat’s inbound tourism release for 2025 reports 7.8 million arrivals of international non-resident travellers, 5.9% more than in 2024, and 6.9 million visits by international visitors, of which 3.8 million were to Tbilisi and 2.7 million to Adjara A/R (Geostat, 30 January 2026). These are regional counts of visits, not counts of people entering a particular building, and they say nothing about the turnover of any shop.

The developer’s own pages quote a figure of over 2.5 million visitors to Batumi in 2024; the guide leaves it aside because the source is not named there and Geostat’s 2025 release is available. For the residential side of the city, the guide Batumi apartment prices per square metre covers apartments, which are a different market from retail space, and the Batumi city page lists the Batumi listings on this site.

A last point on the setting concerns the hotel. The hotel operator’s site shows Orbi Hotels running a hotel at the same address, and the developer’s page says the podium of Orbi City houses the mall and that hotel units occupy 45 floors. The mix of hotel guests, apartment owners and other visitors in the footfall of a retail space in such a complex is not published in any source read.

The complex around the mall: design schedule, towers and what to check

Chapman Taylor’s project page and news item give the only itemised schedule of areas for the Orbi City scheme. The news item is dated 17 July 2025 and states that the practice has led the design from concept to scheme design stages since late 2024 for Orbi Group, with a total gross built area of 126,139 m². The table below repeats the printed lines and adds each line’s share of that total, which is arithmetic by this guide.

Two readings of the schedule are possible and the sources do not choose between them. Retail and the mall appear as separate lines, so the retail line may cover shops outside the mall building or may be a different measure; together the two come to 35,864 m², and with F&B to 42,211 m², which is 52.8% of the 80,000 sqm on the leasing site. The unitemised 11,433 m² could be circulation or other uses, but no source says so.

What matters for a buyer is not which figure is larger but which one is written into the contract. The sale area of a space can be gross, net, or lettable, and the registry records the cadastral area; the three often differ by a few percent in a mixed-use building.

A schedule that gives a list of areas for the scheme does not tell a buyer how many spaces exist or how large each is, so the plan attached to the reservation is the document that counts.

The complex around the mall is described differently by each source, and the next table sets out the figures that matter for a retail owner, namely the size of the residential base the developer cites. The developer’s mall page says more than 10,000 apartments. Its Orbi City page prints 10,800 units (the Russian version says “rooms”), the group’s home page refers to 11,500 apartments, and Korter prints 6,000.

The totals cannot all describe the same thing: some count apartments, some hotel rooms, some blocks that are finished and some that are not. The guide does not pick one. For a retail owner the question is practical: which blocks are occupied and open on the day of purchase, because the visitors the developer refers to are those of the delivered blocks. Korter lists four of the five houses as delivered and block C2 as under construction with completion in Q4 2026.

The complex also has an operating hotel. The hotel operator’s page describes the Orbi City hotel with studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom rooms, and its footer prints the company LTD ORBI GROUP BATUMI with a registered identification number and the address 7 Khimshiashvili Street. That company is named by the hotel site for the hotel business; whether it or another entity signs the sale of a mall space is not stated on the mall pages and is one of the items to confirm.

Checklist for reading the developer’s mall statements against the contract:

1. Take the “opened in 2026” wording and ask for the date on which the mall, or the part containing the space, was commissioned, with the permit number.
2. Ask whether the space is in the delivered part of the podium or in a part still to be built, and what the floor plan shows.
3. Ask which area figure is used in the price (gross, net or cadastral) and request the cadastral plan once the space is registered.
4. Ask whether the space is let: a copy of any lease, the rent, the term, the deposit and the notice period.
5. Ask who manages the mall, how the common-area charge is calculated and whether it is fixed in the contract.
6. Ask in writing whether the architect’s scheme in the 17 July 2025 news item relates to the space on offer.

Buying commercial space in Georgia: registration, owners’ association and what to ask for

A commercial space is registered like any other immovable thing. Article 183 of the Civil Code requires a written transaction and registration of the acquirer’s ownership in the Public Registry, and Article 185 protects an acquirer who relies on the register unless he or she knew the transferor was not the owner (Civil Code of Georgia).

The Code makes no difference between a Georgian and a foreign buyer at this point, and none between residential and commercial property. The guide how to buy property in Georgia gives the general sequence, and can foreigners buy property in Georgia covers the nationality question.

The NAPR fee page does not name a sale in particular, so the schedule reads as the standard fee for registering a transferred right. At the National Bank rate of USD 1 = GEL 2.5949 shown on its currency page dated 9 November 2026 (NBG official rates), GEL 150, 270 and 350 are about USD 57.8, 104.1 and 134.9 (calculated). The fees do not depend on the price of the space.

A feature specific to a space in a mixed building is the owners’ association. The Law of Georgia on Homeowners’ Associations defines an association as a union of owners of residential or non-residential spaces, including space used for commercial purposes, in an apartment building, and defines an apartment building as one with more than two separately owned apartments (matsne.gov.ge). Where a building stands on a single land parcel, Article 11 deems an association established.

Under the same law the share of an owner in the common property follows the ratio of his or her area to the total area of apartments, the owner bears the cost of maintaining the common property in proportion to that share unless the charter says otherwise, and individual property cannot be sold or mortgaged apart from the proportionate share in the common property.

The text does not say whether a podium on its own parcel falls under it, and the mall pages do not say how the podium is organised; the registry extract and the draft management agreement answer that.

Buying through a company is a normal route for commercial property. Registration of an entrepreneur, other than an individual entrepreneur, costs GEL 200 in 1 working day or GEL 400 on the day of filing, and the individual entrepreneur registration costs GEL 26 or GEL 75, according to the NAPR business registration fees.

An extract of the entrepreneurs’ registry costs GEL 20 in one working day, and it is the document that shows who a named seller or buyer company is. A buyer from abroad can read buying property in Georgia from abroad for signing at a distance, and off-plan property in Batumi for contracts signed before completion.

What to ask for in writing before reserving a space, in the order a file is normally built:

1. A price list with unit numbers, areas and the area basis, and a statement whether the price includes VAT.
2. A floor plan showing the space, and its cadastral number or the date it will be assigned.
3. The legal name and identification number of the contracting entity, and a registry extract proving that it owns the space or the right to sell it.
4. The handover date in the contract, the delivered condition, and what happens if the date is missed.
5. The payment schedule, the account that receives each payment, and any escrow or bank security protecting an advance.
6. The construction and commissioning documents for the part of the podium containing the space.
7. Existing leases, tenants and rent, or a written statement that the space is free of rights of third parties.
8. The management agreement for the mall and the common areas, including the charge, who invoices it and how it can change.
9. Any restriction on the use of the space (categories of tenant, opening hours, signage) and any exclusivity granted to others.
10. Whether the space is covered by any hotel, residential or other management arrangement of the Orbi City blocks, and on what terms.

Taxes, residence and financing for a buyer of commercial space

The Tax Code, in the consolidated text of 28 October 2026 on the legislative portal, taxes a commercial space differently from an apartment in several places. The table separates the rules by the kind of owner. It records what the text says; the Revenue Service decides a given case, and the sale contract shows whether a quoted price includes VAT (Tax Code of Georgia).

Reading across the rows, a buyer has to know two facts before the tax position is clear: whether the seller charges VAT, and whether the buyer is a company or a person.

Article 158(3) means a developer that delivers non-residential space is treated as carrying out an economic activity, and Article 165 sets registration at GEL 100,000 of taxable supplies in twelve months, so whether a seller is registered for VAT is a fact to check on the Revenue Service register. Whether a specific price includes VAT, and whether the buyer can deduct it, depends on the buyer’s own VAT status under Articles 175 and 176.

Property tax changed on 30 September 2026. Law No. 1874 of that date rewrote the natural-person rule: the exemption applies if the family’s income in the previous year did not exceed GEL 100,000, and above that the rate lies between 0.8% and 1% of market value.

The EY Georgia Tax and Law Brief for July to September 2026 reports that the threshold was previously GEL 40,000 and that the amendment entered into force upon publication (EY brief). The text of Article 206(1)(a) speaks of a natural person’s taxable property other than land and does not separate residential from commercial property. The guide property tax in Georgia sets out the declaration steps.

For a company the position is different: Article 202(1) sets a maximum of 1% of the average annual net book value, and an enterprise’s profit is taxed at 15% when it is distributed, so a retained profit is not taxed until it is paid out. The table above does not replace an accountant’s analysis of the holding structure, and nothing in it suggests which route suits a given buyer.

Residence is a separate topic and a short one. The Public Service Development Agency lists a short-term residence permit for an alien who holds title to immovable property in Georgia other than agricultural land with a market value exceeding USD 150,000 equivalent in lari, as established by a certified assessor (Public Service Development Agency).

At 2.5949, USD 150,000 is GEL 389,235 (calculated). The Agency’s page speaks of immovable property in general and does not mention commercial spaces; whether a particular space is accepted is a question for the Agency. Guides and FAQ pages that give a lower threshold are out of date; the guide residence permit in Georgia gives the current rule.

Financing is the part on which the sources used here say least. The developer’s FAQ speaks of mortgage and instalment plans for apartments, and its text does not address commercial spaces. The National Bank’s rules on payment-to-income and loan-to-value cover retail lending, and the guide mortgage in Georgia for foreigners explains how those limits apply to non-residents; a loan to buy a commercial space is a matter for the lending bank, and no source read states terms for the mall.

How the mall compares with the other Orbi listings

The developer lists projects in several districts of Batumi and one in Tbilisi. The table below covers the six Orbi listings on this site, with what the developer’s own cards print; the listing pages carry the dated figures of each source, and none of the rows is a ranking.

Only the mall is a commercial offer. The others are apartment projects, so a buyer comparing them with the mall compares different products: a retail space is bought for use or letting as a business asset, an apartment for living or for letting as a dwelling, and the tax and registration rules in the two previous sections differ accordingly. The Georgian listings of all developers are on the Georgia country page.

Orbi Group (developer)

Orbi Group describes itself on its About page as a real estate developer in Georgia and Europe specialising in investment properties. The page gives scale figures, among them 28 or more years of operation, more than four million square metres of completed project space, 55 offices and more than 12,000 employees; these are the group’s own statements, and other pages of the same site use different numbers for some of them, such as 26 years on the commercial page.

The developer page on Korter states that the group has been constructing since 1998. The About page names no founder, owner or registered company. The group’s hotel business, Orbi Hotels, operates a hotel in Orbi City according to the hotel site, whose footer names LTD ORBI GROUP BATUMI.

The contact section of the group’s site lists offices in Tbilisi and Batumi, Frankfurt, Warsaw, Astana and Almaty, Istanbul, Baku and Moscow. The About page says the group works with internationally recognised brands for apartment management and complex operations and names none of them. The group’s pages are the source for everything in this section; the contracting entity of a sale is named in the contract.

Frequently asked questions

What is Orbi City Mall Batumi?

It is the retail and entertainment podium of the Orbi City complex on Khimshiashvili Street in Batumi, presented by Orbi Group as the city’s new urban centre. The developer’s card says it opened in 2026 and that commercial spaces are available for sale, and the English project page says it welcomes nearly 250 brands. The pages read print no price, area or number of spaces for sale, so everything beyond that has to be confirmed in writing.

Is Orbi City Mall Batumi residential or commercial?

It is commercial. The spaces are shops, restaurants and similar units according to the leasing application form, and the developer calls them commercial spaces. They are not apartments, so the apartment rules in the Tax Code, such as the 5% rate on residential letting, are written for a different product. The Orbi City apartments around the mall are a separate matter and have their own listing page on this site.

What does the developer print about the price of a space?

Nothing. The project page, the projects card, the commercial real estate page and the leasing site print no price, no price per square metre and no rent. Chapman Taylor’s pages, which give areas for the scheme, print no prices either. A price list with unit numbers and areas is therefore the first document to request, together with a statement whether VAT is included.

Has Orbi City Mall Batumi opened?

The developer’s projects card says it opened in 2026. The Russian project page speaks of brands that will be represented, and the architect’s project page, as read on 9 November 2026, shows a design-stage status line. The sources do not say which statement is the latest, so a buyer asks for the commissioning date and permit for the part of the podium that contains the space.

How big is the mall?

The sources differ and state no common measure. The leasing site gives 80,000 sqm, while Chapman Taylor’s schedule for the wider Orbi City scheme lists a mall line of 8,159 m² and a retail line of 27,705 m² within 126,139 m² of gross built area. The guide does not reconcile them. The area that matters for a purchase is the one stated in the contract and the cadastral plan.

Can a foreigner buy commercial space in Georgia?

The Civil Code requires a written transaction and registration of ownership in the Public Registry and makes no distinction by nationality in that provision. The restrictions in the texts read concern agricultural land. A company registered in Georgia can also buy, and NAPR lists the registration fee for a company. The guide on whether foreigners can buy property in Georgia covers the point in more detail.

Does buying a space give a residence permit?

The Public Service Development Agency lists a short-term permit for an alien holding title to immovable property other than agricultural land with a market value exceeding USD 150,000 equivalent in lari, assessed by a certified assessor. Its page does not mention commercial spaces, and a purchase is not a permit by itself. Whether a given space is accepted is a question for the Agency, and a lower figure quoted by an older page is out of date.

Is VAT charged on a commercial space?

The Tax Code sets VAT at 18% and treats the delivery of a non-residential building or structure as an economic activity in every case. Its exemption list names land plots, not commercial space. Whether a quoted price includes VAT, and whether a buyer registered for VAT can deduct it, depends on the contract and the buyer. The price list should say which, and an accountant should read the contract.

What property tax applies to an owner?

For a natural person, Law No. 1874 of 30 September 2026 sets the rate at 0.8% to 1% of market value when family income in the previous year exceeded GEL 100,000, with an exemption at or below that figure. For an enterprise the Code sets up to 1% of average annual net book value. The Revenue Service decides each case and publishes the filing dates of 1 and 15 November.

Which documents should be requested before a reservation?

The main ones are the price list with unit numbers and areas, a floor plan, the name and identification number of the contracting entity with a registry extract, the handover clause, the payment schedule and receiving account, the construction and commissioning documents, any leases attached to the space, and the management agreement for the common areas with the charge per square metre. The list in section 5 puts them in order.

Sources and last check

Last checked: 9 November 2026. Sources:

• Orbi Group: Orbi City Mall project page (English)
• Orbi Group: Orbi City Mall project page (Russian)
• Orbi Group: projects list with the Orbi City Mall card
• Orbi Group: commercial real estate page
• Orbi Group: Orbi City project page (English)
• Orbi Group: Orbi City project page (Russian)
• Orbi Group: home page
• Orbi Group: About page
• Orbi Group: frequently asked questions
• Orbi City Malls: leasing site
• Chapman Taylor: ORBI City project page
• Chapman Taylor: news item of 17 July 2025
• Orbi Hotels: Orbi City hotel page
• Korter: Orbi City, Batumi
• Korter: Orbi Group developer page
• Wikipedia: list of tallest buildings in Georgia
• Tax Code of Georgia, consolidated text of 28 October 2026 (matsne.gov.ge)
• Civil Code of Georgia (matsne.gov.ge)
• Law of Georgia on Homeowners’ Associations (matsne.gov.ge)
• NAPR: immovable property registration fees and terms
• NAPR: informational services fees
• NAPR: business registration fees
• Public Service Development Agency: residence permits
• Revenue Service of Georgia: property tax
• National Bank of Georgia: official exchange rates (USD 1 = GEL 2.5949 on 9 November 2026)
• Geostat: Number of population as of 1 January 2026
• Geostat: Inbound tourism statistics 2025
• Visit Ajara: Batumi Boulevard
• Visit Ajara: Europe Square
• EY Georgia Tax and Law Brief, July to September 2026
• OpenStreetMap: copyright and data licence (landmark coordinates)
• Project OSRM: routing service used for road distances

This is not legal, tax or financial advice.