German group ECE has abandoned plans to sell the Brno shopping centre Galerie Vaňkovka, reports E15.cz. 

Hungarian developer and investor Biggeorge Property Plc has purchased a 35,000 sqm development land plot in Budapest, from ECE, for an undisclosed sum.

Panattoni has already delivered almost 170,000 sqm of industrial space around Zielona Góra in three different parks. Space has now been rented by ECE Logistics in one of these projects within the administrative capital of the Lubuski region. The company is to use the centre to run logistics operations for an e-commerce client from where it is to serve markets in Central and Western Europe. The tenant was represented by real estate consultancy BNP Paribas Real Estate.

ECE expands its activities in the development of logistics properties to the international market and realizes a logistics project in Poland for the first time.

ECE has launched its inaugural European residential real estate fund and successfully raised equity commitments from renowned institutional investors, including two large highly reputable German insurance groups. With the capital raised in the first closing, the fund plans the purchase of investments with a volume of more than €350 million. Further capital commitments from institutional investors will be raised in the coming months. The strategic partner for the residential build-to-rent investments of institutional investors in the newly launched fund is the specialized Group company ECE Living. It is supported in concept and product design as well as in capital raising by the investment banking boutique Victoria Partners.

Penta Real Estate completed the Business Centrum Tesla 2 office building project in Košice by selling it to the Austrian company European City Estates. The BCT 2 provides 14,600 square meters of office space. The largest tenants include the companies T-Systems Slovakia, Deloitte, Diebold-Nixdorf and Colonnade. On the seller side, the transaction was advised by JLL and the purchase price was not disclosed upon agreement between the parties.

JLL advised Atrium European Real Estate Limited in the disposal process of two Polish shopping centres, namely Atrium Felicity and Atrium Koszalin to the ECE European Prime Shopping Centre Fund II, managed by the independent fund managing company ECE Real Estate Partners. The parties signed on 9th May 2019 an agreement concerning the sale of both assets for €298 million, representing around 3% premium to book value as at 31 March 2019. The transaction is subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions precedent and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2019.

Penta Real Estate has sold the Business Centrum Tesla 2 office building project in Košice to Austrian company European City Estates. BCT 2 provides 14,600 square meters of office space. The largest tenants are T-Systems Slovakia, Deloitte, Diebold-Nixdorf and Colonnade. On the seller side, the transaction was advised by JLL. The purchase price was not disclosed upon agreement between the parties.

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank provided a facility of €68 million to ECE. pbb acted as arranger and sole lender under the facility.

ECE plans to develop a new shopping centre in Budapest. The project area is located in the North-western part of the Hungarian capital, close to the Danube River, on the site of a former textile factory in the Óbuda district. It is planned to have over 170 shops on three levels and a leasable area of more than 50,000 sqm. Construction start for the project is scheduled for 2019, and the opening is planned for 2021.