Atrium European Real Estate Limited has signed an agreement to acquire Wars Sawa Junior, a prime retail asset located in the heart of Warsaw and in its most prominent high street retail area, for a consideration of €301.5 million. Atrium is to acquire Wars Sawa Junior from PFCEE, a fund managed by CBRE Global Investors, using a mixture of existing cash resources and external financing.
Following the transaction, Atrium’s loan to value ratio will increase from 33.5% to approx. 37.0%, in line with the company’s expectations. The transaction is subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions precedent, with completion anticipated during the fourth quarter of this year.
Built in the early 1970’s, Wars Sawa Junior was originally Warsaw’s first department store. Having been remodelled, extended and upgraded a number of times, it is now one of Warsaw’s most well established and popular retail centres with footfall in excess of 60 million visitors per annum. It offers 26,000 sqm of high-quality modern retail GLA which is fully let to a range of strong international and domestic retail and leisure brands such as H&M, C&A, CCC, TK Maxx and Zara. Additionally, the retail centre offers a further 11,000 sqm of predominantly office and storage space.
The centre will benefit from several significant new developments that are under construction nearby and are planned to open in 2018. In addition, the planned projects of the Museum of Modern Art and additional office buildings will further enhance the attractiveness of the centre’s surroundings in the coming years.
Upon completion of the transaction, the company will own four major shopping centres in the Polish capital with a total GLA in Poland of approximately 550,000 sqm. Atrium expects to create a further 26,000 sqm of GLA in the Polish capital by the end of 2018 as part of its ongoing redevelopment programme, which will ultimately add over 60,000 sqm of prime retail space in Warsaw.
