ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG office

The face of commercial property development in Bucharest has changed a lot over the past decade. Developers, investors, tenants and landlords have come together from all over Romania to talk about the office and retail markets at SEE Property Forum 2016, co-organised by Portfolio Conferences and RICS. We report from Bucharest.   

Global financial services firm Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) has signed a lease for an additional 7,500 square meters of office space in the Brown Brothers Harriman building at Kraków’s Orange Office Park. Now in Phase III of its building expansion, BBH will occupy over 14,500 square meters. Cushman & Wakefield represented BBH in the negotiations. Wardyński & Partners provided legal advice.

The total modern office stock in Warsaw reached 4.75 million sqm at the end of Q1 2016. As much as ca. 75% of this space is located in the central Core and Fringe zones, as well as Upper South and South West. Cushman & Wakefield has published the sixth edition of their Skyline Tracker report, outlining developers’ activity in the Warsaw office market.

The first quarter of 2016 in the Czech Republic was characterized by a lack of logistics and industrial space, demand for office space and high volume of investment into real estate. Colliers International released its latest report summarizing trends on the investment, office and industrial markets.

International real estate developer HB Reavis has announced the acquisition of the BEM Palace in Budapest from Europa Property Fund. Located in the heart of Buda, BEM Palace is the company’s third development site purchased in the Hungarian market and their first redevelopment project across all markets. 

The size of office space lease and sale transactions in Moscow involving foreign companies decreased from 40% to 20% in Q1 2016 compared to Q4 2015. Although foreign companies continue to sign new deals, they are choosing smaller offices and re-negotiating current leases to decrease the amount of occupied space, according to a report by the international consulting company Colliers international.

Warsaw-based developer Echo Investment has concluded two loan agreements worth over EUR 317 million with Berlin Hyp, ING Bank Śląski and Helaba – Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen. These investment loans will be used to refinance four office and seven retail projects.

Acting in its capacity as advisor for a German depositary bank, who is currently administrating the German Special-AIF UBS (D) Sector 3 Real Estate Europe, UBS Real Estate GmbH has sold the Nova Praga office building in Warsaw to Mazovia Capital. Cushman & Wakefield and Magnusson Law represented the vendor in the transaction. The building will now be known as Mazovia Plaza.

RICS organised its first annual conference in Bratislava, Slovakia on 5 May. The half-day event focused on the role of international standards in emerging markets and on the Slovakian property market itself.

TriGranit has started its first year backed with a new owner, TPG Real Estate. In Q1 2016, new leases and renewal agreements reached 25,777 sqm GLA, the average occupancy rate is over 95% in TriGranit managed assets and the company has 20,000 sqm GLA office development in progress. Due to the strong performance of the BPO sector in the region, the company plans further office developments in the near future in each of its core countries: Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.