Central and Eastern European cities have further increased their presence at the largest property event in Europe. Investment markets are booming and this is clearly visible when looking around the stands of Hungarian, Polish, Czech and Romanian cities. Our takeaway from CEE themed panel discussions at Expo Real.

MOL Group announced its plans to relocate its corporate headquarters by 2021 to MOL Campus, the company’s new 83,000 sqm office, which will be designed by UK-based Foster + Partners. The 120 meter high building, which will be the future workspace for up to 2500 employees, will be located within the new BudaPart quarter, on the banks of the Danube in the southern part of Budapest. MOL Campus is set to become the tallest commercial building in Hungary.

The growth of e-commerce is transforming the retail market all over the world. Experts don’t believe that physical stores will completely disappear but owners of developers of retail assets will need to come up with new ideas in order to attract customers. Jan Kotrbáček, Head of Retail Agency CEE at Cushman & Wakefield analysed the CEE retail market for Property Forum.

Romanian developer Forte Partners has acquired a 1,700 sqm plot in the city centre of Bucharest for office development. The plot, sold by Telekom Romania, is located next to Palatul Telefoanelor and the Novotel hotel. It allows the development of up to 9000 sqm of office space.

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank provided an investment facility of €22 million to CBRE Property Fund Central and Eastern Europe, an investment fund focusing on retail assets in Poland and Slovakia, managed by CBRE Global Investors. This is the second transaction after the refinancing of Wars Sawa Junior retail scheme one month ago. CBRE PFCEE will use the proceeds for the refinancing of the dominant Europa Shopping Center in Banská Bystrica. pbb acted as arranger and sole lender under the facility.

Prologis has begun construction of a new 23,710 square metre build-to-suit facility at Prologis Park Prague-Rudna for VAFO PRAHA, the Czech family-owned pet food producer. With construction of Building 19, the park will be fully developed and will comprise almost 250,000 square meters of distribution space.

Immofinanz has completed and opened a further shopping centre under its Vivo! retail brand in the Polish city of Krosno. Vivo! Krosno has approx. 21,000 sqm of rentable space and is fully occupied. This shopping centre expands Immofinanz‘s Vivo! portfolio to ten locations in four countries with more than 314,000 sqm of rentable space.

CTPark Bucharest West currently has 100,000 sqm of new space under construction. The company has big plans to extend the park, having recently purchased more land to allow for a total built-up of more than 700,000 sqm, potentially making CTPark Bucharest West the largest industrial park in Central Europe. The total investment for CTPark Bucharest West alone will exceed €150 million by Q1 of 2018.

Savills has extended its Central and Eastern European (CEE) network by forming an association with ESTON International, Hungary’s leading independent property advisor within the real estate industry. The announcement follows Savills opening of an office in Prague in January 2017 and the mutual co-operation agreed with Crosspoint in Romania in July 2017.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced plans for the Párisi Udvar Hotel in Budapest, joining Hôtel du Louvre in Paris as the second hotel in Europe for The Unbound Collection by Hyatt and third outside of the U.S. Hyatt has entered into a franchise agreement with Párizs Property Kft for the project, which will see Párisi Udvar in downtown Budapest converted into an upper-upscale 110-room hotel. The hotel will feature 18 suites, including 2 presidential suites. The Párisi Udvar Hotel is expected to open in 2018 and will be managed by Mellow Mood Hotels.