The Property Management department at BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland ran the rebranding process for the shopping centres that have recently changed hands from Ikea Centres Polska to the Pradera fund. The new name and corporate design can now be seen in Polish and German locations.

Polish Enterprise Fund VII, a private equity fund managed by Enterprise Investors (EI), has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of shares in CBA Slovakia a.s., an independent food retailer in Slovakia. The total value of the transaction has not been disclosed. As part of the deal, EI will provide €16 million additional equity funding to deleverage the business and finance expansion.

The ParkLake shopping mall in Bucharest, developed by a joint venture of Sonae Sierra and Caelum Development, has received a BREEAM certification with a rating of ‘Excellent’.

Albanian company Balfin Group has acquired a 155 000 sqm plot of land, 1.5 km from the centre of Skopje. The company plans to develop the first mixed-used real-estate development project in excess of 250,000 sqm gross build area, estimated to be largest private investment of this type in Macedonia. The development plans include a new 45 000 sqm gross leasable area shopping mall, residential block and an office park. The overall total investment of the company is planned to be circa €180 million over a time-span of 5-7 years, with €100 million investment in first phase, creating thousands of new jobs and opportunities. The company states that the shopping mall will be developed first, and the apartments and office towers over the next 5-7 years.

The Bulgarian property market is booming with the total transaction volume expected to exceed €1 billion in 2017. The outlook for the future is highly positive: strong demand, underpinned by solid economic growth, encourages developers to start new projects in all segments of the market.

ECE and Allianz have opened the new, comprehensively modernised food court of the shopping centre located in the Polish city of Katowice. During an extensive refurbishment period, the modernized food court of the centre received a new design with modern furniture and a better quality of stay. The refurbishment and modernization was conducted during ongoing operations in the centre in a construction time of approximately five months. All in all the owners invested €2 million into the modernization.

Commerz Real has founded a joint venture together with Unibail-Rodamco for the Prague shopping centre Metropole Zlicin, which has until recently been fully owned by its open-ended real estate fund hausInvest. To this end it has sold 50 per cent of its shares in the property company to Unibail-Rodamco. It was agreed that confidentiality be maintained on the purchase price. Unibail-Rodamco will be assuming the asset and property management for the centre.

Echo Investment and EPP (Echo Polska Properties) have concluded a loan agreement worth €175 million and a VAT loan of PLN 34 million with Bank Zachodni WBK S.A. as an agent as well as PKO Bank Polski S.A. and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. The acquired funds will be used for the construction of Galeria Młociny in Warsaw. The loan was granted for the construction period and a five-year investment period.

French real estate group Catinvest plans to expand Electroputere Parc, the company’s shopping mall in Craiova, by 9,200 sqm. The group has also started the construction of an additional mixed-use building which will comprise 12,000 sqm of retail space, 15,000 sqm of Class A office space and over 700 underground parking spaces. Total investment in will exceed €70 million by the end of 2018.

Poland continues to attract brands from across Europe. The significance and the share of the Food & Beverage proposition within shopping centers continues to grow. Furthermore, both new retail concepts and mixed-use projects have become increasingly popular as well. JLL presents its summary of the Polish retail market as of the end of Q3 2017.