Prague-based Star Capital Investments has become the new owner of the Futurum Ostrava and OC Haná shopping centres in the Czech Republic. CBRE participated in these transactions, representing the foreign sellers. CBRE also manages the building and leasing activities for Futurum Ostrava.

Real estate investment flows into the Central & Eastern European region rose 17% year-on-year in the first half of 2017 to €5.4 billion, putting 2016’s cycle high of €12.2 billion well in 2017’s range, according to Colliers International’s latest report.

AFI Brasov has recently obtained the construction permit and will be the third shopping center AFI Romania is developing in Romania. The shopping center will offer a total gross leasable area of 45,000 sqm, 80% of which is already leased, that will be combined with two additional Class A office towers totalling 25,000 sqm GLA. The overall investment for the mall and first office building is estimated to be over €120 million. The entire project is developed to be LEED Gold certified as a green building.   

In the first half of 2017, there were only approximately 30,000 sqm of retail space delivered to the market in Poland, half of which are extensions. The total stock of modern retail space at the end of June 2017 reached about 11,2 million sqm. Supply for 2017 is estimated at a similar level compared to the previous year (almost 400,000 sqm), according to the latest report by Colliers International.

The AFI Ploiesti shopping center, owned by AFI Europe Romania, received the LEED Gold Certification. AFI Ploiesti thus becomes the only building in town to achieve the LEED Certification.

Pan-European fund manager Aerium has sold a shopping centre in Brno to CPI Property Group, for an undisclosed sum. Built in 2004, Kralovo Pole Shopping Centre comprises of a two-level gallery with 78 shops and a food court, providing a total of 26,500 sqm GLA plus 900 parking spaces. It is anchored by a Tesco hypermarket.

During H1 2017, the retail stock in Poland grew by 63,100 sqm. Shopping centres accounted for 16,600 sqm, retail parks for 21,500 sqm and standalone projects for 25,000 sqm. Recent market openings include standalone store Agata Meble (18,000 sqm) in Rzeszów, retail park Kalinka (9,700 sqm) in Kalisz as well as Tarasy Grabiszyńskie centre (8,500 sqm) in Wrocław. JLL summarised H1 2017 on the retail market in Poland.

Echo Polska Properties NV (EPP) has finalised another acquisition – a takeover of Galeria Solna in Inowrocław from a company owned by Libra Project and Acteeum Group. The value of the deal was €55.4 million.

According to Savills, the total volume of commercial property investment transactions concluded Q2 2017 in Poland exceeded €1 billion. Investor activity is high, driven mainly by portfolio transactions. 

TREI Real Estate, the property estate arm of the German Tengelmann Group, successfully sold a portfolio of 40 Spar leased supermarkets in Hungary to Erste Asset Management.