Hypermarket chain Albert has sold Obchodní centrum Čestlice to HSTN Holding, a private investment platform founded in 2017 by the founders of Sportisimo. The sale was facilitated by Cushman & Wakefield.
Refurbished and reopened in 2018, the Albert hypermarket is the largest store in the centre and will continue operating as a tenant. Other anchor tenants include Sportisimo, Mountfield, Pepco, Teta drogerie, CCC and OKAY Elektro. The food & beverage sector is represented by KFC and Costa Coffee, and it will be expanded significantly in the future. The offer of services is broad as well, including BENU Lékárna pharmacy and O2.
“Albert’s principal mission is to be the best food store in each town and city and to offer its customers the best range of fresh food. With the sale of the Čestlice shopping centre, we are completing the project of revitalising the scheme, which has taken several years and which customers can already see and appreciate primarily through the overall modernisation and refurbishment of the shopping centre and in particular of the Albert hypermarket, undertaken over the course of the last three years. With this sale and by choosing HSTN as the partner, Albert will safeguard the future development of the scheme in this strong location,” says Mateusz Hilgert, Vice President, Real Estate and Supply Chain at Albert ČR.
“This is a key acquisition for HSTN Holding, complementing its existing real estate portfolio. The Čestlice SC scheme is attractive for tenants with its ratio of revenue realised to costs, which makes it more resilient to the current challenges on the commercial retail property market for the future,” commented Aleš Navrátil, Investment Director, HSTN. HSTN Holding is a private investment platform founded in 2017 by the founders of Sportisimo, the largest sports goods chain in Central Europe.
Michal Soták, Partner and Head of the Capital Markets Team in the Czech Republic for Cushman & Wakefield, the company that represented the seller in the transaction, adds: “The sale of the Čestlice SC is a testament to the resilience and depth of the Czech real estate investment market. This is also confirmed by the fact that this acquisition was co-financed by a bank. Shopping centres with the right concept work very well despite the impact of the measures related to the coronavirus and remain the target primarily for local investors. We are working on additional transactions with other clients in the retail segment, and we believe that we will conclude them by the end of the year, further confirming the strength and resilience of the Czech market.”
Cushman & Wakefield is the newly appointed manager of the Čestlice SC.
