Since Romania’s accession to the European Union (EU) in 2007, many of its cities have witnessed a resurgence of state-led urban development on a scale not seen since the socialist period. In Bucharest, many of these state-led projects have resulted in mass evictions and the demolition of vast historic areas. This urban development surge is occurring at a time of deep budget cuts and a sharp decrease in private investments—conditions brought on by the onset of the 2007-2008 recession. EU structural funds and public funds have financed many of these infrastructural and urban development projects and in the process transformed the dynamics of central and local governance. This project examines the emergence of a new regime of urban governance that is reliant on EU and public funding and focused on public works projects. It examines the conditions under which municipal investments in the built environment produce uneven development through a selective and discretionary allocation of public resources. My research will analyze how this allocative mode of urban governance differs from territorial competitiveness, which recent scholarship views as key forces shaping Central and Eastern European cities.