United Business Center 2 (UBC 2) in Timișoara was awarded a LEED Gold certification. UBC 2 adds up to 18,000 sqm leasable area and was opened in early 2017. The building is a part of the Openville Timișoara mixed-use project currently developed by Iulius and Atterbury Europe in the vicinity of Iulius Mall.

In the second half of last year, gross take-up decreased in the two largest regional office markets of the Czech Republic. The Regional Research forum announced the Brno and Ostrava office market figures for H2 2018. 

In 2018, Echo Investment signed lease agreements for a total office area of nearly 80,000 sqm. This year also seems to be busy - the company plans to start construction of approximately 100,000 sqm of offices including in Warsaw, Wrocław, Łódź and Kraków. Projects with a total area of 150,000 sqm are being prepared.

Last year’s demand for office space on Poland’s markets was 1.5 million sqm. 744,000 sqm of office space was delivered to market while a further 1.6 million sqm is under construction, according to JLL’s report.

Cushman & Wakefield has mapped the office property market in detail and made a chart of the largest owners and the most active developers of office buildings in the main markets of the Czech Republic. At this point, there is 4.23 million sqm of office space in the Czech Republic. CPI Group is the biggest owner with 22 properties taking up 5% of the total area. The three biggest office owners in Prague control about 15% of the entire market. Penta Investments has been the most active developer over the course of the last ten years.

Globalworth Poland has taken further steps to manage its Polish real estate portfolio in-house. Between December and January, the company took on the property management of Lumen and Skylight in Warsaw, West Gate in Wrocław, the A4 Business Park in Katowice and Tryton Business House in Gdańsk. Since the company entered the market, Globalworth has gradually internalized the property management of a series of buildings and now handles directly 250,000 sqm in only about one year, which constitutes almost 60% of its portfolio in Poland.

Conseq Group’s Conseq Realitní investment fund has bought the A7 Office Center in Prague from Revetas. The purchase price has not been disclosed. The 16,000 sqm building is located in the Czech capital’s Holešovice district. The list of tenants includes Czech News Center, Ahold Czech Republic, DM Drugerie and Megapixel.

Hines and Zeus Capital Management announced the completion of the sale and purchase of the Graffit building in Warsaw. The property owned by Hines Russia & Poland Fund (HRPF) was sold to TAN Poland Sp. z o.o., a company managed by Zeus Capital Management. This is Zeus’ first investment in Poland and it is part of its commercial real estate platform dedicated to Central and South East Europe.

Bucharest’s central business district developed around Victoriei Square is registering an upward evolution in office activity, with a historic record-high volume in take-up and positive growth in pipeline stock, as showed by the latest office analysis conducted by Activ Property Services.

Hungary’s Horizon Development has been granted a development loan by UniCredit for its ongoing Szervita Square mixed-use development in the centre of Budapest. At the same time, the developer has pre-leased all four office floors (8,500 sqm) of the project to coworking space provider Spaces.