Atenor’s new Polish affiliate has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire long-term lease rights on two 30,500 sqm office buildings in Warsaw. These office buildings are known as the University Business Center and are located in the Mokotów district. They offer approximately €3 million in annual rental income.

Office take-up in 2017 hit a record high of 674,800 sqm in Poland’s regional office markets, up by more than 16% on 2016’s level. The strongest leasing activity was recorded in Kraków, Wrocław and Tricity. Cushman & Wakefield has published its MarketBeat report.

Park Inn by Radisson announced the opening of a 168-room property in Katowice, Poland. This brings the group's Polish portfolio to 15 hotels and over 3,100 rooms in operation or under development.

Griffin Premium Real Estate, 71.7% owned by Globalworth, is being rebranded as Globalworth Poland and will be renamed as Globalworth Poland Real Estate N.V.

Panattoni Europe is to build a courier delivery distribution centre for DHL Parcel Polska. The cross-docking facility will feature close to 9,000 sqm and will be built in Radzymin. Construction works commenced at the beginning of the year and will be finished in October 2018. The lease was signed for 10 years, and the contract was mediated by the international advisory firm CBRE.

Globalworth has completed the acquisition of two additional land plots adjacent to its assets on the Gara Herastrau/Barbu Vacarescu corridor of Bucharest for approximately €16 million. These plots are anticipated to allow for the development of 40,000 sqm of commercial (predominantly office) space. The company published an update for its operations.

The year 2017 saw the greatest amount of industrial space built in Europe in its history – more than 3.7 million sqm. This represents a 68% increase over 2016 and a 55% increase over the existing record dating back to 2007 (an additional 1.2 million sqm). The total industrial space in the region has increased by 17% as a result. Such are the results of a survey conducted by Cushman & Wakefield, a company that has been monitoring the industrial property market in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania on a long-term basis.

According to data by JLL, the volume of office investment transactions concluded in Poland for 2017 was approx. €1.6 billion. A record-breaking €970 million of office investment deals was reported in major cities outside of Warsaw.

Zalando Lounge, online fashion platform Zalando’s shopping club, plans to build a 130,000 square meters large fulfilment centre together with its developer Hillwood. The new site will increase the logistics capacity of Zalando Lounge and flexibility of operations. Intralogistics will be tailored to the specific requirements of Zalando Lounge, taking temporary campaigns and occasionally larger products from the home category into account. The site will be operated by a provider. About 500 jobs will be created in the mid-term.

Warsaw’s central office district went through a transformation process in recent years following the delivery of a number of modern office developments such as Q22 or Warsaw Spire, which have already been acclaimed as unique and landmark schemes. However, in addition to modern buildings and futuristic skyscrapers, this area is also home to second-generation offices developed before 2000 and historical buildings which form an integral part of the capital city’s centre. Michał Wachowicz, Consultant, Capital Markets at Cushman & Wakefield analysed Warsaw’s CBD.