Cushman & Wakefield has published a summary of the first quarter of 2018 on Poland’s regional office markets. Following the record-breaking performance in 2017, the total office stock of regional cities rose by 3% q/q by the end of Q1 2018 to 4.5 million sqm. The average vacancy rate for the regional markets was down 0.6 p.p. at 9.3%. The largest concentration of development activity is in Wrocław and Krakow.

NEPI Rockcastle, through its subsidiaries, has acquired Aura shopping centre in Olsztyn, Poland for €64.9 million and Ozas shopping centre in Vilnius, Lithuania for €124.6 million.

LPP SA, the owner of brands including Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito and Sinsay, has leased 16,000 sqm at Panattoni Park Gdańsk III, which will be dedicated to e-commerce. The complex is currently under development, and the tenant will be moving in already in Q3 2018.

CPI Property Group announced the acquisition of Atrium Centrum & Atrium Plaza office buildings in Warsaw, Poland. Atrium Centrum & Atrium Plaza are seven-storey office buildings located in the centre of Warsaw. The two office buildings have an aggregate GLA of 31,869 sqm and include a medical centre, a restaurant, a bank, a pharmacy, a premium fashion store and 410 parking lots. CPIPG worked directly with the seller, which was a fund under the management of Peakside Capital Advisors.

The location and the commercial offer are the most important criteria taken into consideration by parents visiting shopping centres with children – these are the main conclusions from the research conducted by Colliers International in cooperation with the Polish Council of Shopping Centres (PRCH) and Ariadna (research agency) in the eight biggest Polish agglomerations in terms of shopping centre child-friendliness.

LC Corp Group has chosen Knight Frank to be the property manager of Retro Office House in Wrocław. Completed at the end of March, the office building offers a leasable area of 20,700 sqm and has already been rented out almost in its entirety.

The key catalyst behind the further growth of Poland’s regional office markets is the BSS sector, which is increasingly expanding into smaller cities as tenants continue looking for attractive alternatives outside Warsaw. This is benefiting such locations as Krakow, Wrocław and Tricity and all the regional markets are seeing multiple modern office projects underway in response to the growing occupier demand.

Forum Gdańsk opened its doors officially to the public. This modern urban shopping destination is situated in the inner city of Gdańsk and offers 62,000 sqm GLA of retail, a multi-screen cinema, leisure facilities, restaurants and 1,100 parking spaces. Forum Gdańsk also includes a boutique hotel and the multi-functional Gdańsk Heritage Centre. The centre boasts a new public transport hub and is adjacent to the main railway station, the Old Town and key municipal buildings. Multi Poland, part of Multi Corporation, the Gdańsk municipal authorities and PKP Polish Railways cooperated on this major project. Multi developed the project and is responsible for the management of Forum Gdańsk. The total investment, including road infrastructure development, was approximately €194 million.

Globalworth announced the acquisition of West Link, a recently completed office property in Wroclaw, by Globalworth Poland. West Link is located to the west of the city centre and is well situated on Wroclaw's key communication arteries. It offers 14,400 sqm gross leasable area and occupancy of 100%, with an annual contracted rental income of €2.5 million and a weighted average lease length in excess of 6 years. The main tenant is Nokia Solutions & Network, which is also the main tenant at GPRE's West Gate, an adjacent high-quality office property which comprises a further 16,600 sqm.

Preliminary data has revealed an increase in shopping centre footfall on Thursdays, Fridays and Mondays, and a decrease on Saturdays. Cushman & Wakefield presented a summary of the first quarter of 2018 on the Polish retail market in its latest report.