Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed as the exclusive agent to commercialise extra space available following the downsizing of its big-box hypermarkets to a smaller compact hypermarket format.

French AEW Europe and Hungarian Indotek Group have concluded an agreement regarding the acquisition of the Promenada shopping centre in Târgu Mureș, Romania. The 50,000 sqm building’s tenants include Auchan, Leroy Merlin, Decathlon, H&M, Cinema City, LC Waikiki, New Yorker, Hervis and Media Galaxy. Indotek Group plans to renovate and modernize the whole building and plans further acquisitions to strengthen its presence on the Romanian commercial real estate market.

User expectations have changed significantly during the past couple of years and this is a challenge that most landlords do not take lightly. Mátyás Gereben MRICS, Country Manager of CPI Hungary talked to Property Forum about the changing needs of office tenants and the shopping centre of the future.

During its reconstruction, Eden Park Handlowy in Zgorzelec, Poland has changed its format from a shopping centre into a retail park with the total GLA increasing to 10,000 sqm. At the moment the park is actively filling its leasing areas. Agreements have been signed with several companies recently.

The One Cotroceni Park project, developed by One United Properties in Bucharest on a 5.8 hectares land plot, will give a new dimension to the Work - Live - Shop concept on the local market, offering a 15,000 square meters retail area, comparable to that of a medium-sized shopping centre, to the future employees and residents who will live within the project.

According to one of CEE’s most active developers, tenants in recent years have become more open to innovative and sustainable solutions when it comes to renting retail or office spaces. Tibor Tatár, CEO of Futureal talked to Property Forum about the company’s current projects and changing tenant expectations. Tibor Tatár will be joining a panel on the Hungarian property market at our upcoming CEE Property Forum 2019 in Vienna.

Companies Iulius and Atterbury Europe have opened the Iulius Town mixed-use project in Timișoara, the largest investment in the region, adding up to a total of €442 million. Iulius Town entailed integrating Iulius Mall Timișoara into an extensive urban regeneration project, completing it with retail, office and entertainment uses.

Cromwell Property Group has exercised its pre-emptive right to acquire a third-party investor interest in the Cromwell Polish Retail Fund (CPRF), which it has managed since acquiring the investment and asset manager from GE Capital Real Estate in 2013. The fund contains seven catchment dominating shopping centres with a gross asset value of circa €600 million. Since taking over the management of the fund, Cromwell has completed several major asset management initiatives including several refurbishments and expansions, as well as numerous lettings including a 170,000 sqm deal with Auchan and Schiever Polska across eight long-term leases in 2015.

The retail sector has been heavily affected by the changes brought on by technology. Solutions such as indoor localization provide limitless opportunities for retailers wanting to stay ahead of the competition. Oren Rosen, Co-Founder of Israeli startup Infuse Location Ltd talked to Property Forum about the changing shopping experience.

Immofinanz is driving the steady growth of its Stop Shop retail park brand, as previously announced, with a next step that includes the expansion of the portfolio to 90 locations. The most recent acquisitions include six fully rented retail parks in Slovenia and Poland with roughly 54,000 sqm of rentable space. The annual rental income based on invoiced rents amounts to approximately €6.6 million, which represents a gross return of 8.6%.