The historic area of the old Monopol Wódczany vodka distillery will be transformed into Monopolis, a project that will combine office space, services and cultural amenities along with restaurants. Construction works at Monopolis will be launched in H2 2017 by developer Virako.

Retail property investments continue to attract investors´ attention within the EMEA region as well as in the Czech Republic. Due to a lack of quality retail schemes available for purchase in the European core markets, investors´ interest has been broadening in terms of geographies as well as retail asset classes. The latest JLL study summarises the trends on the European retail market from an investors´ perspective. 

Cresco Group’s latest development in Bratislava, UNIQ Staromestská has received its final inspection certificate. The building consists of three underground and seven above-ground floors. It offers 7,656 sqm of office space, complemented with retail facilities and storage areas covering 917 sqm. 

German retailer Lidl bought two XXL Mega Discount stores, located in Sibiu and Galati, from Penny Market. Each property offers 2,500 sqm of retail space. Lidl will also take over the land surrounding the stores. The transaction price is estimated to be between €6 million and €8 million, according to zf.ro.

Panattoni Europe announced the sale of Panattoni Park Warszawa–Konotopa, located in the Warsaw region. The multi-tenant logistics centre comprises two buildings totalling close to 50,000 sqm and is fully leased. After the sales transaction is completed, Panattoni Europe will retain responsibility for managing the park. 

During the last three years, companies have leased nearly 4 million sqm of modern office space in Poland. Taking the dynamic development of firms into consideration, 2017-2019 can generate office demand of up to 5 million sqm, JLL predicts.

According to CBRE, it is very likely that business deals in the Hungarian investment property market in 2017 will reach last year’s €1.54 billion (HUF480 billion) turnover.

CBRE sees continuing strong demand from investors in the Czech Republic across the core sectors of office, retail and industrial with an increased demand for more specialist sectors such as hotels and residential. The retail sector in Q1 clearly dominated with more than €900 million transacted, followed by the office sector with a 20% share of total market volume.

Tenant representation is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon on the office markets of Central Europe, which is without a doubt a sign of a healthy, growing and more educated market. Their activity, however, often raises ethical questions as it’s still often unclear who pays for their services. Conflict of interest in tenant representation has been one of the key topics of two regional events: the Property Forum - RICS Prague Property Summit 2017 and the latest RICS Hungary Tea & Talk in Budapest.

Effective from April 2017, JLL is the property manager for Building A of the Twin City office complex in Bratislava, Slovakia. The property is situated in the newly-established business district in the Bratislava city centre, in close proximity to the Main Bus Station Mlynské Nivy.