Empik in Cepelia, Decathlon City in the International Business Center, Bulgari, Luca, Carhartt and Le Szapo. Do the leases signed in Warsaw in recent months herald a high-street revival in Warsaw and beyond? High shopping centre density rates and shrinking retail availability bode well for it. In addition, Cushman & Wakefield notes that the Polish retail market is now going through a very interesting period of growth, with many tenants increasingly focusing on location diversification as new retail concepts and formats are emerging. This means that there is a real chance of a revival of high-street retail.

The panel discussion on the future of financing during the Future of Real Estate 2024 conference has shown that, for now, relations between the banks and the investors are rather cold. The event was held at the beginning of June in Warsaw by Property Forum and RICS.

Immofinanz has completed the sale of three office buildings in Warsaw to Echo Investment Group. The transaction price amounts to €28.5 million.

Prime Logistics Wrocław and logistics service provider LX Pantos have signed a lease for 100,000 sqm. The transaction saw LX Pantos renegotiate its contract and expand to a new building to consolidate its warehouse space in a single location. This marks the largest warehouse deal in Poland this year. LX Pantos was advised by Cushman & Wakefield. CBRE advised the owner of Prime Logistics Wrocław, Brookfield Properties.

We are approaching the halfway point of 2024. Before the semi-annual investment market reports are released, Avison Young is sharing the current insights on the Polish investment market. 

Skanska has sold the Nowy Rynek E office building constructed in the Wilda district of Poznań, Poland. The buyer is Eastnine AB, a Swedish real estate company focused on office premises in prime locations at selected markets in the Baltics and Poland. This is the second transaction between these two parties in Central and Eastern Europe. 

JLL will be responsible for leasing Atenor's future projects in Poland. Based on the success of Lakeside, Atenor has decided to entrust JLL with the commercialisation of its next two projects: Lakeside II i.e. the modernised UBC II building and FORT 7.

A retail park in Bielsko-Biała, which is being built on the site of a Tesco shop on Warszawska Street, has a new owner. Redkom Development, responsible for the construction and commercialisation of the facility, sold the project to Newgate Investment, a company specializing in managing the value of retail properties, especially retail parks. The price has not been disclosed.

Mitiska REIM has secured a €40 million refinancing with mBank for a portfolio of four Polish food-anchored retail parks. Representing a combined gross leasable area (GLA) of nearly 34,000 sqm, the convenience centres are located in the cities of Września, Turek, Lubliniec and Wodzisław Śląski, and were developed by Mitiska REIM’s Polish partner, Karuzela Holding, and are owned in joint-venture with the FRI 2 fund.

According to the latest report by Newmark Polska, the Polish warehouse and industrial market saw less than 1 million sqm transacted in the first quarter of 2024. At the end of March, the development pipeline stood at more than 2.3 million sqm while vacant stock in standing buildings experienced another rise. An increase in both developers’ and tenants’ activity is, however, expected to be spurred by long-awaited cuts to interest rates.