The third fund of Czech investor Arete Group has acquired a modern, highly specialized production facility with a research and development centre and with the potential for further development in Kežmarok, Slovakia. The value of the investment exceeded €10 million.

Croatia-based hotel group Arena Hospitality Group d.d.¸ through its local subsidiary has successfully completed the acquisition of Hotel 88 Rooms in Belgrade. The transaction value amounted to €5.95 million (HRK 45 million).

According to experts of Cushman & Wakefield, this year’s total volume of transactions is expected to reach €9.4 billion in Central Europe, which will represent a one-third decrease on last year’s figure. Poland’s share in the total transaction volume - albeit down by one-fourth compared with last year - will hit approximately 60%.

Real estate asset and investment manager GalCap Europe has acquired the Koszykowa 54 office building in Warsaw. The seller is a mutual fund managed by UBS Real Estate GmbH. The office building was acquired under the mandate of a German pension fund and complements the existing CEE component within the investor's individual fund structure, which is managed by 2IP Institutional Investment Partners.

J&T Banka has acquired the eight-story Rustonka office complex in Prague 8 from Gramexo, which is part of a group of companies affiliated with the J&T Group, for €80 million (CZK 2.1 billion).

Immofinanz is continuing the expansion of its Stop Shop retail park brand, as announced, and has added eight locations to the portfolio shortly before the end of the year. Six fully rented retail parks in Serbia and the Czech Republic with roughly 43,000 sqm were purchased from Mitiska REIM, a Belgian investor specialised in these types of commercial properties. In addition, Immofinanz closed the purchase of a fully rented retail park (approx. 5,500 sqm) in Voitsberg, Austria, during the fourth quarter of 2020. The portfolio in Croatia will be increased by one property in the city of Ludbreg.

Penta Real Estate has sold the Churchill Square office complex near Prague’s main railway station for more than €150 million (CZK 4 billion) to Českomoravská Nemovitostní and Corporate Finance House Group. This is the largest office transaction on the Czech investment market this year. The acquisition was financed by German bank Helaba.

City Park Hostivař in Prague 10 has been acquired by a Western European investment company, represented by BNP Paribas Real Estate. The name of the buyer and the purchase price has not been disclosed.

S Immo AG has purchased two properties of the Campus 6 business park in Bucharest from developer Skanska with a total investment volume of €97 million. The two buildings have a total leasable area of nearly 38,000 square metres and both are fully let. Key tenants are Microsoft and Société Générale.

Cromwell EREIT Management Pte. Ltd., the manager of Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust announced that it will be acquiring a portfolio comprising 11 logistics and light industrial properties in the Czech Republic and Slovakia for an aggregate purchase price of €113.2 million, on a net operating income yield of 6.7%. The seller is Arete Invest, acting on behalf of its sub-fund Arete Invest Podfond CEE II