Skanska’s commercial development unit in CEE has announced the appointment of Alexandra Tomášková as Managing Director for Skanska Property Czech Republic. She will begin in her new role from June 1st 2018, and will also become a member of Skanska CEE’s commercial development unit Management Team.

The rapid growth of e-commerce is changing the way warehouses are being built. In many BTS buildings, automated or semi-automated racking systems and robots are deployed for product storage and picking, says Krzysztof Czekalski, Technical Director in the Industrial & Warehouse Department at Cresa.

Prologis has begun construction of two new speculative facilities totalling 25,300 square metres at Prologis Park Bratislava. The developments include the 9,800 sqm Building 14, in which 2,900 square metres have been pre-leased by Blitshtein Trading, a food distributor to major markets in Central and Eastern Europe and the 15,500 sqm Building 20.

The CEE hotel market experienced rapid growth in the last three years both in terms of hotel performance and transaction volume due to the dynamically expanding tourism industry. Within the region, the Budapest hotel market has seen exceptional growth, as its RevPAR (revenue per available room) growth outpaced the key regional capital cities, according to Colliers International's latest hotel market study.

Echo Investment is launching a joint venture with a company controlled by an unnamed investor. Resi4Rent is the first fully integrated investor, operator and asset manager for purpose-built residential communities in Poland. With more than 1,200 apartments under construction and another 1,700 apartments ready for construction in the next 12 months, Resi4Rent will be the largest residential for rent platform in Poland. The first tenants will be able to move in during the fourth quarter of 2019.

Kiddo Play Academy, a company which specializes in family entertainment, will open its second playground in Bucharest on the 1st of June, on an area of approximately 1,200 sqm in ParkLake Shopping Center. The leasing negotiations were conducted by Colliers International Romania.

Neinver opened Prague The Style Outlets, its first outlet centre in the Czech Republic and the 16th centre in the company’s expanding portfolio, which totals 300,000 sqm of gross leasable area (GLA). The centre features over 100 stores in 20,000 sqm of GLA. The new centre is part of a joint venture between Neinver and The Prague Outlet signed in 2016 to create the largest outlet centre in the Czech Republic, with a total investment of €70 million. A second phase will increase the total commercial space to 30,000 sqm in the coming years. The outlet centre will bring over 600 jobs and considerable tourist spending to the local economy.

Piraeus Bank is about the sell the Landmark office buildings in Central Bucharest to Revetas Capital, ZF has learnt.

Hansainvest Real Assets GmbH intends to significantly expand its logistics property portfolio. Logistics assets with a volume of €200-300 million will be acquired by the end of 2019. The acquisitions will be concentrated on the core markets of Germany, Benelux and the United Kingdom. Selected properties may also be acquired in France, the Nordics, Spain and Poland. A total of between six and eight properties will be acquired.

Whilst Prague 4 is the largest market, over the next two years, most of the new supply will be delivered to Prague 8. In perspective, it could overtake Prague 1 by market share and become the third largest office submarket in the capital. In 2018 and 2019, almost 27% of new offices that are currently under construction will be completed in Prague 8. The largest of the planned projects is Palmovka Open Park, thanks to which office space in Prague 8 will expand by almost 25,000 sqm at the end of Q2 2018. Regarding the intensity of construction, Prague 4 is in second place with 22% of the offices under construction. The third place belongs to Prague 5, where 19% of new construction will be completed.