In 2016, the Warsaw office market grew by 407,000 sqm of new space in 21 projects. The vacancy rate has grown by 1.9 pp on a yearly basis to 14.2 of total stock with central locations having lower occupancy rates than non-central locations. The Polish Office Research Forum has published its data on the Warsaw office market for Q4 2016. 

Prologis announced fourth quarter and full year 2016 activity in Europe. Prologis Europe ended the fourth quarter with 96.7 percent occupancy, an increase of 90 basis points over the course of 2016. The company signed new leases and renewals totalling 718,200 square metres in the fourth quarter and 3.5 million square metres in the full year 2016 – an increase in volume of 54 percent over 2015.

Knight Frank has been appointed asset manager, property manager and sole agency of the Zgorzelec Plaza shopping and entertainment centre. A new lease agreement with a fitness services provider has also been signed recently.

Panattoni Europe has expanded its team. The developer’s ranks have been joined by Adam Janus, who has taken the position of Business Development Director. He will be responsible for attracting new warehouse projects and aligning the developer’s services with the needs of clients and prospects.

Total real estate investment volume in the Czech Republic exceeded €3.7 billion in 2016, CBRE revealed. The most notable transactions in 2016 were the sale of P3 Logistics Parks, the Park and Florentinum, with 67 transactions being mediated on the Czech market in total. 

German fashion retailer Peek&Cloppenburg has leased 5,200 sqm in the extension of the AFI Palace Cotroceni shopping mall in Bucharest. Extension work to add 6,800 sqm of GLA to the mall is to be completed in May, bringing the total leasable area up to approximately 90,000 sqm. Peek&Cloppenburg’s new store is set to open this autumn.

Panattoni Europe has completed a manufacturing and warehousing building for STS Acoustics. The facility features close to 9,000 sqm and was built at the Międzyrzecz Industrial Park, in the Lubuskie voivodeship. The lease was signed for 12 years.

The property management and (property and SPV) accounting of Váci Greens’ Building C, acquired by ZFP Investments, acting on behalf of the ZFP realitní fond, a Czech real estate fund entering the Hungarian commercial real estate market, is now performed by CBRE.

AEW has sold the Smíchov Gate office building in Prague 5 after almost ten years of ownership on behalf of one of the funds managed by AEW. The new owner is Redside, manager of real estate open-ended investment fund NOVA Real Estate (SICAV). Cushman & Wakefield facilitated the sale of the property.

At the end of last year Colliers sold the former Bricostore DIY-unit in Törökbálint to Régió, a Hungarian toy company. The building has approx. 12,000 sqm of GLA and will be used by Régió for warehousing purposes.