Panattoni Europe is to build another distribution centre for Castorama Polska. The project, one of the biggest in Poland, will be delivered in Stryków. Contruction works will commence later this April. The lease was mediated by experts from JLL.

In Q1 2017, industrial space totalling 162,400 sqm was completed within 10 industrial parks across the Czech Republic, bringing the total stock of modern industrial and logistics space to 6.47 million sqm. The Industrial Research Forum announced its preliminary industrial market figures for Q1 2017.

€1280 million was invested in commercial real estate in the Czech Republic in the first quarter of 2017. This is the largest ever amount of investment registered for a first quarter. The result is mainly attributed to three major transactions: the sale of the Letňany Shopping Centre the CBRE GI portfolio and the change of the Olympia Brno owner. The Czech National Bank’s exit from currency interventions should not slow the strong demand for commercial real estate down.  

2016’s record-breaking €12.2 billion investment in the real estate sector in the CEE region is likely to be surpassed in 2017 – this is according to CEE Real Estate Investment Compass 2017 published by Colliers International and CMS. The sources of investment flows into the CEE region are also expected to remain diverse in 2017, with Asian and CEE investors becoming increasingly active in the real estate market.

The departure of ICU Medical from the manufacturing complex in the southwestern Slovak city of Vráble, made a modern light–industrial facility available for sale on a vacant possession basis. The complex consists of facility with a gross usable area of 7,000 sqm and 3 ha of available land for further development The new owner, Slovak company TESGAL, provides surface treatments of metal parts used mostly in the automotive and consumer industry. 

Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed Polish property group Echo Polska Properties (EPP) raised approximately ZAR2.2 billion (around €150 million) in an accelerated bookbuilding through the placing of app. 119 million new shares at a price of ZAR18.50 per share. Capital will be used to previously announced acquisitions and for further M&A opportunities in the retail segment within Poland.

Vastint Poland was awarded LEED-Platinum for the first phase of Business Garden Wrocław. Once completed, the complex will comprise nine office and retail buildings with a total leasable area of 117,000 sqm.  

Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed property manager of the Prosta Tower office building in Warsaw. A special open-ended real estate fund managed by Credit Suisse Real Estate Investment Management Germany is the owner of the scheme. The property management agreement was signed in December 2016.

Key players of the Romanian property market are highly optimistic about the future. They expect strong demand to last for several more years and major changes to happen in almost all segments of the market. 50 speakers and more than 200 visitors came together at SEE Property Forum 2017, co-organised by Property Forum and RICS, to analyse the potential of the Romanian real estate market from a global perspective. Here’s our second report from Bucharest.

Atenor confirmed the closing of the sale of the third building of the Váci Greens campus in Budapest to Hungarian real estate fund OTP Prime Ingatlanbefektetesi Alap and consequently the collection of the full sale price, i.e. €63.75 million. Váci Greens B comprises 25,300 sqm of office space and 399 basement parking spaces.