Skanska has acquired about 26,200 square meters of land in Bucharest, Romania, from Intero Property Development Estates SRL. The total investment amounts to €24 million.

From retail survival and sustainability investment through to the impact of automation and major political and economic change, Cushman & Wakefield’s new EMEA insight report explores the major themes the commercial real estate industry needs to keep in mind next year.

With the checkout of the last guest on 4 November 2019 a new era has started in the story of the downtown building which in the past 20 years was known as the four-star Starlight Suiten Hotel Budapest. The new Mamaison Hotel will open its gates expectedly in mid-summer 2020. CPIPG also announced plans for a brand new 3-star property (located between the ex-Starlight and the Four Seasons Gresham Palace.

TriGranit has laid the foundation stone of the first phase of its new Class-A office development, Silesia for Business in Katowice, Poland. The office building will be the final element of the mixed-use development project of TriGranit, started 15 years ago and realised on a 30 hectares large brownfield area. The post-mining area today includes a shopping mall and residential estates, while the new office building, providing approx. 26,000 sqm GLA and more than 400 parking spaces, is expected to be completed in Q4, 2021.

European office take-up is forecast to reach 9.2 million sqm by the end of 2019, down 4% from 2018’s end-year volume. Prague is expected to exceed that decline, with take-up predicted to fall by 22% to 400,000 sqm as demand for office space in the Czech capital continues the downward trend that began in Q2, according to the latest Savills research.

Dutch-based property manager MVGM announced the closing in Poland as part of the previously announced acquisition of JLL’s European property management business and the alliance partnership in 10 European countries. As of today, the JLL activities in Portugal and Spain are also integrated into the MVGM company. This marks the completion of the acquisition which includes an additional 12 million square meters to the MVGM European portfolio and access to additional high-profile clients including leading global real estate investors.

Polish modular producer Polcom will be able to expand its operations thanks to a financial package provided by a consortium of banks to which the EBRD is contributing PLN 108.43 million (€25 million equivalent).

Real estate developer Hagag Development Europe continues its investments in Bucharest by adding a new office property to its local portfolio: Tudor Arghezi 21. The transaction value exceeds €9 million. 

For the first three quarters of 2019, the CEE region has recorded an investment volume of ca. €9 billion. Offices dominate the deal flows with a 58% share, followed by a much slower retail sector with 18%, industrial & logistics (9%) and hotels (8%).

Flow East announced the topping out of its landmark project being constructed on Wenceslas Square (Václavské náměstí) as contractor Metrostav placed the last beam atop the structure.