Benson Elliot, the UK-based private equity real estate fund manager, on behalf of its pan- European fund, Benson Elliot Real Estate Partners IV L.P. (BEREP IV) has acquired four grade A office buildings in key Polish regional markets. The properties, secured in separate off-market transactions with four different vendors, follow the fund’s acquisition of the 350-room Warsaw Sheraton Hotel in October 2015.

JLL has been selected by Portuguese company Porto Office as the exclusive commercialisation agent responsible for leasing space at Porto Office A, the second phase of the office and services investment developed in Kraków.

Construction works on the modern office complex Podium Park in Kraków’s Czyżyny are under way. In connection with completion of the pre-lock-up stage in Building A, Podium Investment started to perform finishing works. Currently, according to the schedule, lock-up stage works in Building A are under way. Completion of the first building is planned for the end of June 2018.

Skanska has commenced the third building of its Krakow-based High5ive office project. During the construction works, the company will also develop an underground garage for the fourth building. High5ive, developed in the very heart of the city, will ultimately consist of five buildings and deliver 70,000 sqm of office space. The whole project will contribute to an interestingly managed and thought-out urban area in Krakow.

Ghelamco Poland has started the construction of its first office project in the city of Kraków. The building, called .big, will be located at the junction of Generała Bohdana Zielińskiego and Kapelanka streets. The project will offer 10,000 sqm of office and 1,500 sqm of commercial space. Completion is scheduled for mid-2017. Cushman & Wakefield is the leasing agent for .big.

The construction of building H, the eighth element of Bonarka for Business (B4B), an office complex in Krakow, has recently started. At completion, the office building will provide approx. 10,000 sqm GLA and 209 parking spaces for the tenants, extending the B4B complex to a total of 75,000 GLA. Meanwhile, GlobalLogic, an existing tenant in B4B since 2016, signed a lease agreement for an additional 1,274 sqm GLA.

A subsidiary of NEPI Rockcastle has entered into an agreement to acquire two shopping centres in Poland for an aggregate sum of €249.4 million. Shopping centres Serenada (41,170 sqm) and Krokus 27,728 sqm) are to be extended for a further €212 million thus creating a single integrated shopping centre with a GLA of over 100,000 sqm.

Prosperity on the office market in Lesser Poland’s capital continues, as is evident from the number of new schemes delivered to the market and those under construction and in the pipeline as well as the volume of transactions completed. Experts at BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland highlight that the market dynamics are not to any significant degree affecting rents or the vacancy rate which remain at a stable level.

Kraków is the biggest office market in Poland outside of Warsaw. In August 2017 Kraków surpassed the threshold of 1 million sqm of overall supply. As for H2 2017, JLL expects that the volume of new office space will total 105,000 sqm, which would constitute the second best result in Poland with Warsaw claiming the top position

BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland acting as the exclusive agent commenced the process of recommercialisation of the Class A office space in the Diamante Plaza building in Kraków on behalf of the building’s owner, Aldesa, a leading Spanish construction company.