The first half of this year saw an absolute record-breaking result in the history of the Polish investment market in the warehouse segment. For the office sector, it was the second-best six months in history in terms of transaction value. Despite the turmoil caused by COVID-19, total transaction volume in the commercial real estate sector in Poland in the first half of this year was even higher than the excellent result from the same period in 2019, according to Walter Herz.

Panattoni is extending Panattoni Park Gdańsk Airport to meet the needs of a new tenant. Leading logistics operator PEKAES is to take up 11,500 sqm with a further 4,000 sqm secured for its future expansion. From March 2021 the tenant will have both traditional warehouse and cross-docking space at its disposal.

Echo Investment has gained a building permit for the Bonarka Living residential estate in Kraków. The project is being developed in close proximity to the Bonarka City Center and an over two hectare nature reserve. The first apartments will be handed over to tenants at the turn of 2021 and 2022.

Trei Real Estate GmbH has opened its 18th retail park under the Vendo Park brand in Poland. The retail property is located in Solec Kujawski in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodship. The town of around 16,000 residents is located a two-hour drive south of Gdansk. The new Vendo Park provides a lettable area of around 3,000 square metres and 97 parking spots. The property is almost fully occupied. Its tenants include KiK, Sinsay, Martes Sport, RTV Euro AGD and Hebe, among others. Overall, Trei invested c. €3.8 million here.

Manufacturers of concrete products in Poland will be able to generate a little over PLN 9bn in revenue in 2019 in spite of slower construction activity, according to the findings presented in the latest report by research company Spectis.

Cavatina Holding has entrusted Knight Frank with the management of the Carbon Tower office building in Wrocław. The building’s leasable floor area totals 19,000 sqm.

Savills has been appointed by Atrium European Real Estate as sole letting agent for office space in all the buildings owned by the fund in Poland.

Every year, the number of BREEAM and LEED-certified warehouse buildings in Poland increases. There are several reasons for the growth of sustainable development in the sector. On the one hand, educated tenants put pressure on developers. On the other hand, developers themselves increasingly adhere to the decisions of the Paris Agreement, which sets out a global action plan to prevent global warming. In the latest development schemes, companies strive to reduce the negative impact on the environment through more thoughtful development planning and by reducing the carbon footprint. Currently, certification is particularly popular in the office sector. But warehouse developers increasingly strive to meet the BREEAM or LEED construction standards too. Often long before the completion of the scheme, warehouse developers try to demonstrate that the project meets the requirements of sustainable construction and ecology by obtaining pre-certification. Indeed, the new green construction standards for new buildings are slowly becoming the norm within the warehouse sector.

New research from Cushman & Wakefield has identified Berlin, Reykjavik, Oslo, Warsaw, Zurich, Milan, Vienna, Madrid and Prague as emerging hotspots for data centre development in Europe. The European data centre market has long been dominated by the ‘FLAP-D’ markets of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin, cities with their own deep business and financial sectors to serve. While these markets are still critical to the data centre ecosystem as entry points - and with over 500 MW of construction underway among them - interest in the FLAP-D markets is now competing with physical limitations including a lack of energy to power the centres, limited stock and a need to be closer to regional users.

Trei Real Estate GmbH has taken out a long-term loan in a volume of €51 million through its Polish subsidiary, Trei Real Estate Poland from pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, a German specialist lender for commercial real estate finance. The loan represents a cross-border financing arrangement and breaks down into two tranches of five and ten years, respectively. It is collateralised with 40 supermarkets from the existing portfolio of Trei Poland, the supermarkets being occupied by Biedronka. Trei intends to use the borrowed capital to finance its growth trajectory.